// Morrisons to sell only free range eggs by 2022
// A fifth of the 10 million eggs it sells each week comes from caged hens
Morrisons has revealed plans to sell only free range eggs by 2022 in a bid to pressure other grocers into following the initiative.
Currently, a fifth of the 10 million eggs it sells each week comes from caged hens.
The initiative means egg producers will need another 334,000 free-roaming hens to meet the demand from Morrisons.
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The Big 4 grocer had initially planned to stop selling caged eggs by 2025.
“Improving animal welfare is very important to customers and it’s very important to us,” Morrisons egg buyer Robert Hofmann said.
“We source our eggs directly from farms and have worked hard to help them all move to free range.
“From today, all our eggs will come from free-range hens that are able to roam freely outdoors – typically during daylight hours – and then return to nest boxes in the evening.”
Morrisons has faced a challenging trading period after reporting a drop in group like-for-like sales last month.
For the 22 weeks to January 5, sales excluding fuel, dropped 1.7 per cent due to “challenging” trading conditions.
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