German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir presented new plans regarding the products produced and sold in Germany and will soon have to indicate the conditions under which animals were kept.
Producers will have to introduce the new measures step-by-step over the next couple of years.
“Animal husbandry in Germany can only be fit for the future if it does justice to animal welfare,” Özdemir stressed during a press conference where he presented a benchmark paper to implement a nationwide animal husbandry labelling system.
Already in the coalition agreement, the three ruling parties had set themselves the goal of introducing a mandatory animal welfare label. Shortly after taking office in December, Özdemir then announced it would be launched before the end of the year, at least for certain product groups.
According to the minister, the label should help to make farmers’ investments in animal welfare more visible while at the same time creating more transparency for consumers.
Customers “want to know how the animal whose meat they buy has lived, and they also want to express their future expectations with their purchase decision, as far as possible,” stressed the agriculture minister.
Germany currently has no state-imposed label for animal products.
Last year, the plan of now-former conservative Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner to introduce a state-run but voluntary label failed due to opposition from the Social Democrats (SPD), the coalition partner at the time. Back then, the SPD wanted a mandatory label instead.
As per the reports, Germany’s next government will introduce compulsory livestock labelling and revise the distribution of EU agricultural subsidies, according to the coalition agreement the three parties agreed to on Wednesday (24 November).
