Hen cage ban to demand significant investments from business owners

The Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture has finalized legislative amendments to ban the keeping of caged hens in Estonia starting in 2035 — a change that will demand significant changes by businesses.
According to ministry figures, 81 percent of all hens in Estonia's egg production businesses are currently kept caged. As the practice is set to be banned starting in 2035, transitioning to barn systems will require businesses to make significant investments, as all poultry housing equipment will need to be replaced.
This, in turn, will also necessitate either the renovation of existing facilities or the construction of new ones, said Allan Tohver, CEO of Dava Foods Estonia.
"This investment will range between €50-60 per hen," Tohver explained. "So, using our company as an example, if we have 300,000 hens, that would mean about €15 million. That would be the cost of building new henhouses."
Dava Foods Estonia, the country's biggest egg producer, is currently working on a project to adapt its existing henhouses for use by barn hens, but the effort is anything but cheap.
"There's no way around it — these old henhouses are outdated too, and need significant upgrades," the CEO acknowledged. "If you want to improve the chickens' welfare, that involves substantial sums, and unfortunately, just a couple of euros won't be enough."
Estonia's third-largest egg producer, Linnu Talu OÜ, aims to relocate most of its caged hens to barn systems by 2027 at the latest. Currently, 38 percent of the company's hens are kept free-range or in barn systems.
Achieving this required the renovation of two old, previously unused buildings at a total cost of approximately €1.2 million. The company had to take out loans and apply for Agricultural Registers and Information Board (PRIA) grants to fund the investment.
Linnu Talu general manager Jarno Hermet said they hope to continue renovating existing buildings in the transition to barn housing. If this proves possible, their total investment in the transition could be kept down to around €3 million.
"We couldn't afford to build new [henhouses]," Hermet acknowledged. "Investments were, are and will continue to be very expensive for producers. We hope to manage by replacing equipment and reducing some of the burden that way."
Such investments, however, will inevitably impact egg prices as well, he added.
"The investment itself is expensive, the payback period is lengthy, and free-range and barn-laid egg production is more expensive," the general manager noted. "There are higher electricity costs, because more ventilation is required, higher labor costs, slightly more eggs go to waste, and even higher feed and water costs, because the birds move around more and expend more energy as a result."
Minister of Regional Affairs and Agriculture Piret Hartman (SDE) said that the state hopes to find ways to support businesses in their transitions to keeping barn-housed hens.
"This year, we have various investments about to open up for food producers," Hartman highlighted, noting that businesses can already apply for funding to make investments and support and prepare for this transition.
"But we'll certainly account for this change in the next period, ensuring government support for business owners to effectively implement this change," she added.
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Editor: Mirjam Mäekivi, Aili Vahtla