Trade, Gastronomy, and Meat Industry
Animal farmers who participate in the Initiative Tierwohl deliver their animals to slaughter companies that have also joined the industry alliance for improved animal welfare. In return, they receive a price premium. The meat and sausage products resulting from the slaughtering and processing stages are labeled with the product seal and are available in participating retail stores. Consumers can recognize by the seal that the product originates from a farm participating in the Initiative Tierwohl.
Slaughterhouses, Processing Plants, and Intermediaries
The meat industry plays both an organizational and an important negotiating role in the Initiative Tierwohl. Participation is open to all poultry, pig, and cattle slaughterhouses, as well as food processing companies and intermediaries.
All companies in the meat industry are required by the Initiative Tierwohl to participate in a certified quality assurance program (QS or another recognized quality assurance system). This includes, for example, appointing an animal welfare officer and the collection of slaughter findings data that provide insights into animal health.
Livestock owners receive a price surcharge on the market price directly from their abattoir or recipient for the additional costs incurred in achieving compliance with the ITW criteria. Processing companies and intermediaries play a crucial role in this process. They must negotiate price surcharges for ITW products bilaterally with abattoirs on the one hand and trading companies or restaurants on the other, ultimately ensuring that livestock owners are rewarded for the additional costs they incur.
Auditing
To ensure that only goods originating from animals from certified farms bear the Initiative Tierwohl Seal, abattoirs, food processing companies, and intermediaries undergo an annual audit. During this audit, inspectors check, among other things, the identity of the goods and the correct labelling of the goods based on the meat industry requirements catalog.
Retail Food Stores and Gastronomy
Food retailers and catering companies offer animal welfare products and are also largely responsible for financing the scheme. All participating trading partners and catering companies pay a price surcharge for pork, beef, and poultry to suppliers. These suppliers then pass on the price surcharge along the value chain to the livestock owners. For every kilogram of meat and meat products sold, participants also pay a participation fee to the Initiative Tierwohl’s operating company. Consumers can buy products bearing the Seal in retailers’ branches and find dishes made with animal welfare meat on the menus of catering companies.
Market solution and fund financing
The Initiative Tierwohl was founded in 2015 as a coalition of food retailers, farmers, and meat producers. Participating food retailers financed the scheme until the end of 2020 through a fund that compensated participating livestock owners for the additional costs of animal welfare. The companies paid a total of €645 million into the fund. Since January 2021, the market solution described above has been in effect for fattening.
In order to further improve animal welfare, partial fund financing will remain in place for the time being. The reason for this is the three production phases in pig farming: sow production, piglet rearing, and pig production. In order to enable continuous ITW certification, the Initiative Tierwohl is working to attract further piglet producers. Until the chain is closed, trading partners, the catering industry, and abattoirs will continue to provide financial incentives for piglet producers.