Free-range producers and the Irish Farmers Association are getting increasingly worried about the housing regulations in place due to the current bird flu crisis in Europe.

The housing regulations were brought in on 23 December 2016 to minimise the risk of poultry coming into contact with wild birds. Nine cases of bird flu have been detected in wild birds in Ireland since the end of December 2016.

Under EU regulations, free-range producers can only house birds for 12 weeks, after which they can no longer sell their produce as free-range. The crunch date for free-range producers arrives on St Patrick’s Day (17 March). In a recent statement to the Irish Farmers Journal, the Department of Agriculture confirmed that if the housing regulations remain in place after 17 March, then eggs and poultry meat can no longer be marketed as free-range.

Moreover, the Department was not definitive on whether birds will remain housed past 17 March, saying only that the regulations are subject to “regular review”.

It would be creating a completely new classification of poultry that does not exist in Ireland

With regard to how free-range birds will be labelled after 17 March, the Department said that if birds continue to be housed after this date, it will write to all free-range producers to advise them of procedures to follow and the necessary actions to be undertaken to comply with the marketing standards regulations.

Barn-reared v free-range

IFA poultry committee chair Nigel Renaghan is calling on the Department not to relabel free-range birds as “barn-reared” as intended if the birds remain housed after 17 March.

“These birds are not barn-reared, they are free-range and they are specifically bred as free-range,” he said. “It’s like comparing a Holstein cow with a Belgian Blue. There is a separate set of regulations in place for barn-produced chickens and eggs and these free-range birds do not comply with that. If the Department labels them as barn-reared, it would be creating a completely new classification of poultry that does not exist in Ireland.”

I am also calling on Irish retailers to continue to pay free-range producers the premium price

Renaghan is calling on the Department to follow the example of a UK retail outlet that is already making plans to keep the same packaging in place for free-range produce but to have a label on top of the packaging saying the birds have been “temporarily housed”.

Renaghan is calling on Irish retailers to follow this example: “I am also calling on Irish retailers to continue to pay free-range producers the premium price as they cannot afford to be paid any less after all the investments they have made on their farm,” he added.

As we reported last week, it is understood there could be €3/bird difference between free-range and housed birds, as well as a cost to Irish farmers of approximately €20,000 a month.

There are approximately 270 free-range producers registered with the Department in Ireland.

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