Ikea withdraws commitment to Compassion in World Farming

Ikea Italy & Switzerland remain with CIWF

Ikea’s stores in Belgium, Germany, Portugal, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Denmark, Finland and France dropped their pledge to introduce higher welfare standards after making limited progress in recent years. Only Ikea Italy and Switzerland retain their awards as they continue to honour their higher welfare commitments.

Philip Lymbery, Compassion in World Farming chief executive officer, said Ikea’s lack of progress was not only disappointing but a highly retrograde step: “It is completely at odds with the growing movement for higher welfare chicken we are witnessing in both the EU and US.

“With so many other companies responding to the increasing consumer concern for animal welfare and the weight of scientific evidence showing the need to improve the welfare of chickens, it’s baffling to me that Ikea, like McDonald’s, are not joining the movement.”

CIWF: Ikea’s level of ambition has waned

Ikea first worked with CIWF in 2008 and the 2 have been working closely to develop and implement a global animal welfare strategy, which has seen Ikea introduce a cage-free egg policy across much of its European business.

CIWF said that despite working with Ikea on a roadmap to introduce the required higher welfare criteria, their level of ambition has waned and the commitment had not been achieved.

Ikea to launch Better Programmes next year

Ikea, which has more than 300 outlets around the world with restaurant/canteen sales of €1.8bn, is instead to publicly launch next year its Better Programmes, along with transport and slaughter standards with road maps and milestones.

Ikea says the programmes will be based on current science, expert opinion and supplier feedback, and will focus initially on broilers.