Presenting Research Survey Findings: Perceptions of Egg Producers on the Adoption and Maintenance of Cage-free Systems in China, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines

February 9th, 2022

On February 24 we’ll be holding a webinar (click here to register) to present the findings of our recently-conducted survey: Egg producers’ perspectives on the adoption and maintenance of cage-free systems in China, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The research, funded by the Tiny Beam Fund and led by our Science and Extension team, was conducted together with academic collaborators from Edinburgh University (China-based collaborator), the University of Queensland (Australia), Harvard Law School (USA), Tokai University (Japan), Universiti Putra Malaysia (Malaysia), Chulalongkorn University (Thailand), Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia), IPB University, Indonesia (Indonesia) and the University of the Philippines Los Baños (Philippines). Over 200 egg producers (cage and cage-free) participated in this survey.

With more and more producers across Asia looking to meet a growing demand for cage-free eggs, the aim of this research was to assess their main challenges and needs in successfully transitioning to and maintaining cage-free farms. This will help ensure support is localised and relevant, and that it’s support industry really needs.

In this upcoming webinar, Global Food Partners’ Senior Animal Scientist, Dr. Kate Hartcher, will present the survey methodology and findings, including producer perceptions on the following topics:

Reasons for using cage-free instead of conventional cage systems
Feasibility of cage-free systems in their country
Reasons cage-free farmers transitioned from cages to cage-free
Biggest challenges and problems preventing cage farmers from using cage-free systems
Perceived solutions to these challenges
Level and type of support needed to establish or maintain cage-free farms
Who should offer support

The results of this study, some of which are shown in the chart below, show a strong theme of needing to improve farm practices and a need for information and training by producers. This supports the programmatic work of Global Food Partners, which has been focused on investing significant resources into producer support in the form of developing training materials, information, resources, and conducting on farm and virtual consulting work.

Solutions-for-maintaining-cage-free-farms

Only by engaging directly with egg producers can we best understand their challenges and needs. We hope that the findings of this research survey help to achieve long-term sustainability and profitability in the egg industry in Asia as the region increasingly adopts cage-free production.