‘Pivotal moment’ as supermarket chains join cage-egg exit

Two more supermarket chains say they will phase out cage eggs.

FreshChoice and SuperValue, which are owned by supermarket giant Progressive Enterprises, are the last to commit to the ban.

The move means all major New Zealand supermarkets have committed to stopping the sale of cage eggs over the next nine years.

SuperValue and FreshChoice stores will be free of whole cage eggs by the end of 2025. Their sister brand, Countdown, made the same commitment last year.

Progressive Enterprise spokeswoman Kiri Hannifin said the decision for FreshChoice and SuperValue to go cage-free was delayed as they needed to ensure ‘‘surety of supply‘‘.

It was too early to say whether cage eggs would be phased out, or whether they would be withdrawn from sale on a given date, she said.

Early last year, Countdown came under intense pressure from lobby groups such as Safe to stop selling cage eggs. As a result, Countdown pledged to sell only cage-free eggs by the end of 2024 in the North Island, and by the end of 2025 in the South Island.

Countdown’s rival Foodstuffs, which owns New World and Pak’n Save, has committed to be cagefree by 2027.

Safe campaigns director Mandy Carter said New Zealand was at a ‘‘pivotal moment in history’’.

‘‘Now all the major supermarkets have decided to go cageegg-free, the market for such cruel products is decreasing to the point that the egg industry will be rethinking any decision to build new colony cages.

‘‘This policy extension by Countdown’s owner, Progressive, … hammers a huge nail in the coffin of colony cages.’’

By law, conventional battery cages had to be removed by 2022, Carter said. ‘‘However, the egg industry was set to replace these cages with equally cruel colony cages. Hens are crammed into wire cages with a space only about the size of a magazine to live their entire lives.’’