Consumers Want Freedom to Choose with Free Range Eggs

Consumers are voting with their wallets for hen welfare, with Sunny Queen Farms experiencing an increase in their free range egg sales since its commitment to ensuring a free range standard of just 1500 hens per hectare on outdoor range earlier this year.

Sunny Queen Managing Director John O’Hara said the company’s Sunny Queen Farms free range eggs have seen a sales increase of more than 13 percent since the period before the announcement that committed to every chicken having the minimum outdoor space equivalent to a king size bed.

“It is evident that consumers want transparency when it comes to hen welfare, and we’re seeing it across the country with sales for Sunny Queen Farms’ free range eggs increasing 23 percent on prior year.

“Not only have our free range egg sales increased, importantly, so too has our marketshare, meaning consumers have moved away from some of the other brands,  to ours which commits to an outdoor hen density of no more than 1500 hens per hectare,” he said.

The move from the Queensland-based egg producer came just prior to the federal government ruling that all free range farms were to have a maximum outdoor hen density of 10,000 hens per hectare.

Even with a regulated industry of 10,000 hens per hectare, Sunny Queen Farms is committed to a premium free range offering of just 1500, with investment into more farms already underway to accommodate this lower outdoor density.

“Consumers have shown us hen welfare is paramount when it comes to free range eggs and we will continue to invest heavily to meet this increasing demand. Our customers are paramount in all we do – if consumers’ preferences change we adapt and change too,” Mr O’Hara said.

A farmer-owned company for over 40 years, Sunny Queen founded its operations on providing fresh, quality farm eggs to Australian homes every day. They offer access to a live webcam at chooktracker.com.au so consumers can see the chooks roam free on the farm in real time.

For more information on Sunny Queen Farms’ Free Range 1500 standard, visit www.sunnyqueen.com.au/freerange