Canada’s biggest grocers have failed to deliver on promises to switch to cage-free eggs by 2025, falling behind other retailers around the world.
In 2016, the Retail Council of Canada announced that grocery retailers, including Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro and Walmart, would go cage-free by 2025. It was part of a wave of similar promises at the time by food companies, retailers and restaurant chains around the world. But after nine years, none of the Canadian grocers are anywhere close to reaching their cage-free goals, with some retailers saying there simply isn’t enough supply. Roughly 80 per cent of all Canadian laying hens still kept in some type of cage as of last year.
“It’s really disappointing,” said Riana Topan, program director with Humane World for Animals Canada. “They’ve made very little progress in the past decade.”
Other food giants have managed to exceed or come close to their 2025 cage-free goal, including McDonald’s Canada, which announced last year that it had hit its target early. A&W says its eggs come from exclusively cage-free farms. The U.K. grocer Tesco says it’s on track to hit 100 per cent cage-free by the end of the year. Costco’s American stores were at about 92 per cent as of 2023 but Costco’s Canadian stores were only at 22 per cent, according to the company’s website.
At Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro and Walmart, cage-free egg sales haven’t risen above 20 per cent of total egg sales, according to the companies’ most recent updates.
In a statement this week, Metro said it wasn’t fair to compare retailers to restaurants, since retailers are dealing with a supply of eggs that “is likely far greater and more complex” than a single fast-food chain.
Earlier this year, Loblaw said in a report that “the 2025 timeline was unattainable as suppliers are not in a position to ramp up supply within this time frame.”
In 2021, the Retail Council, a lobby group that represents the grocers, announced the 2025 cage-free goal was no longer realistic. Instead, the Retail Council said it would instead follow the lead of the National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC), a body that sets standards for livestock farming in Canada.
Spokesperson Matt Poirier said in an email that the Retail Council “learned from experience that stakeholders are best able to influence change.”
NFACC standards are written by a committee that includes farmers, retailers, restaurants, academics and animal welfare advocates. NFACC’s latest code of practice for egg farmers set a goal of phasing out conventional cages by 2036.
The NFACC code still allows for “enriched colony” cages that provide hens more room to move as well as amenities like scratch pads and nest boxes.
NFACC division director Jackie Wepruk said the codes need to provide reasonable timelines for farmers to transition to new systems, because rushing could have negative consequences for the animals in those barns.
But animal rights advocates have criticized NFACC as too influenced by industry insiders, and dismissed the move to allow enriched cages as a cop-out.
Topan, with Humane World for Animals Canada, said enriched environments were “slightly bigger cages, with furnishings.”
“It’s still a cage,” she said.
Metro spokesperson Marie-Claude Bacon said there isn’t a “clear consensus” on whether cage-free systems are better for hen welfare than enriched cages, pointing to the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association’s position on the subject. The association said cage-free systems allow hens the chance to exercise and forage, but come with increased risk of hen-on-hen violence, including feather pecking, cannibalism and smothering.
Conventional cages are still the most popular method in Canadian egg farming, accounting for about 43 per cent of eggs in 2024, according to Egg Farmers of Canada. Enriched cages are now the second-most popular, at about 37 per cent, while cage-free systems — free-run, free-range and organic — have nearly doubled since 2016, now accounting for about 20 per cent. In free-run systems, hens can roam the barn floor but can’t go outside, while organic and free-range systems allow hens access to the outdoors when weather permits.
Those types of eggs are also more expensive. And egg prices became one of the main symbols of high inflation in recent years — particularly in the U.S., which doesn’t have the same price controls on eggs. In Canada, eggs are part of the federal supply management system that sets prices and blocks imports with tariffs, as a way of protecting domestic farmers from wild market swings.
Topan said the supply management system could be part of the reason Canada is lagging on the cage-free transition, since farmers are shielded from competitive pressure.
But Egg Farmers of Canada said supply management was helping the transition away from cages, because it “allows farmers to work together.” In a statement, the organization said it picked an “orderly, steady” phaseout of cages so “we can remain responsive to the needs of our value chain and avoid last-minute rushes that could jeopardize the stability of our market.”
