Supermarket giant Tesco announced on Wednesday that it will stop sourcing eggs from caged hens by 2025, after a review of its egg sourcing strategy. The nine-year plan has been welcomed by animal welfare groups.

Tesco said the move is part of a wider shift towards more sustainable product sourcing (alongside commitments to support farmers through fresh milk sales, take more outsized fruit and veg from growers and guarantee high value contracts for British potato growers).

At present, 43% of the 1.4 billion eggs sold by Tesco each year come from caged operations, also known as enriched colonies, with the remaining 57% coming from Free Range or Organic farms. However, the new commitment doesn’t mean all eggs will be free range or organic nine years from now - Tesco said it will source eggs from barns under its new commitment; though barns allow hens to move freely around the house and they must have certain amounts of litter and perching space, the stocking densities remain high - 9 hens per m2, as opposed to 13–14 hens per m2 in caged operations - and hens tend to be kept indoors for their entire lives (elsewhere in Europe barn hens sometimes have access to the outdoors).

Commenting on the new commitment, Tesco’s Commercial Director for Fresh Food Matt Sinister said, “Our decision on caged hens is one of a number of Tesco initiatives designed to ensure sustainable sourcing, and improve animal welfare.

“We carried out an extensive and collaborative review with our suppliers and key industry experts to help us work through how best we can move to 100% cage-free eggs. This will ensure we give our supplier partners the certainty they require, to make the significant and necessary investments needed for the new farming systems.”

Veli Moluluo, Managing Director - Noble Foods Ltd, Tesco’s largest supplier of eggs, added, “We have already started investigating new methods of egg production, and the commitment from Tesco to move away from enriched colony production in a manageable timeframe gives us the confidence and ability to invest for the long term”.

Farm animal welfare charity Compassion in World Farming said it is “delighted” that Tesco plans to move away from caged systems, and estimated that the move will improve the lives of 2 million egg-laying hens per year. The charity has been campaigning for the UK’s supermarket chains to go cage free, following announcements from major retailers in the US, including the world’s largest supermarket chain Walmart, which announced it would make the switch by 2025 back in April. Compassion has since put pressure on Asda, the UK subsidiary of Walmart, to make the same commitment.

On Wednesday, Compassion in World Farming CEO Philip Lymbery commented, “It is fantastic that Tesco are to go cage-free by 2025 and I would like to congratulate them for their bold commitment, and for doing the right thing for laying hens. I hope that this will be the catalyst needed for all other UK retailers to follow Tesco’s lead and phase out cages for good.”

German retailer Aldi has also made a pledge to go cage free by 2030, though animal welfare campaigners said the timescale of Aldi’s commitment is “disappointing.”