French eggs to go free-range only

Free-range eggs will be the only eggs sold in French supermarkets by 2022, Agriculture Minister Stéphane Travert has announced.

Mr Travert said that the government was honouring a commitment of President Emmanuel Macron made in February 2017, when he promised the WorldWide Fund for Nature (WWF) that he would ban the sale of eggs from caged hens.

The planned ban, however, extends only to eggs sold whole in shops. Processed egg products could still include eggs from battery chickens. "The French industry is doing well, little by little there is less battery breeding but it is not possible to ban all battery farms," Mr Travert told the Grand Rendez-vous programme on Europe 1 and C News.

A number of French supermarkets have anticipated the ban. As reported, Monoprix stopped selling battery eggs in 2016; Carrefour will sell only free-range eggs from 2020, and Auchan had set itself a target of 2025 before the government's announcement.