The broilers pro- duced under the Loue brand have plenty of space, both inside and outside the house.
Above and beyond The Loué brand goes even further with a bird age of 84 days, 4 instead of 2 m2
per chicken outside and several other re-
quirements, such as antibiotic reduction and contributing to greening the landscape. The poultry farmers have planted a million trees over the years, as well as 1,800 kilometres of hedges. The grain for their feed is 80% local (27,000 hectares). Poultry vet Martine Cottin, employed by the slaughterhouse, advises poultry farmers on reducing antibiotics, for example, by using homeopathy and phytotherapy. Even the slaughter of the birds complies with welfare measures: stunning with CO2
and
keeping the poultry in a dark room prior to slaughter. Cavol slaughters 400,000 Label Rouge broilers and 40,000 Loué chickens, in addition to the 60,000 organic chickens reared under the Nature and Respect label. Marketing director David Le Manour has seen increased sales of the three labels: 10% in 2019. The € 35 million invested in expansion and modernisation over the last few years is there- fore not surprising. He had been expecting stable growth be- fore the coronavirus pandemic. However, this is uncertain now. The question is whether consumers will keep buying
12 ▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 6, 2020
given the considerable price difference. Where a standard su- permarket filet costs € 7-9 per kg, a Label Rouge filet may be € 20-22, with Loué at € 28 and organic even as much as € 30. Le Manour does not mention how much poultry farmers re- ceive. He does say that they agreed upon fixed prices before- hand, in consultation with the poultry farmers cooperative Cafel. The price changes every three months depending on the grain price.
Old fashioned Poultry and arable farmer Olivier Complain (53) has four poul- try houses each with 4,000 broilers, chickens and cockerels. They will go to the slaughterhouse in 10 days. The current price is € 2.17 per kg and his birds weigh 1.515 kgs on average when he delivers them. This has not increased by even 10 grams over the years. “I do not want my birds to be too big,” he says. “Call me old-fashioned, but they perform well and taste accordingly.” Their health and growth are not his biggest problems be- cause these aspects are all fine. He hardly uses antibiotics and he cannot remember the last time he used anti-coccidiostats. No, his biggest problem is to get his birds inside in summer.
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