[July 2021] Global Food Partners (GFP) works with businesses to implement andmaintain high animal welfare and responsible sourcing policies on a globalscale. In Asia, GFP seeks to address one of the region’s most pressing animalwelfare issues for the food and hospitality industries – helping food corporationsdevelop and maintain responsibly-sourced cage-free egg supply chains, whileensuring that both ends of the supply chain improve their profitability andsustainability. This month, GFP will launch its new virtual training courses oncage-free egg sourcing and production, for food businesses and egg suppliers.
[July 2021] Global Food Partners (GFP) works with businesses to implement andmaintain high animal welfare and responsible sourcing policies on a globalscale. In Asia, GFP seeks to address one of the region’s most pressing animalwelfare issues for the food and hospitality industries – helping food corporationsdevelop and maintain responsibly-sourced cage-free egg supply chains, whileensuring that both ends of the supply chain improve their profitability andsustainability. This month, GFP will launch its new virtual training courses oncage-free egg sourcing and production, for food businesses and egg suppliers.
Most US and European companies have globalcommitments to source only cage-free eggs but have been unable to solve supplychain challenges in Asia to meet their requirements. This is because in Asia, a vast number ofcommercial egg-laying hens are housed in conventional cage production systems. InSingapore, it is estimated that 99% of egg-laying hens are housed in thesetypes of systems. In Hong Kong, most eggs are imported from mainland Chinawhere over 90% of the country’s laying hens are housed in cages. China is alsothe world’s largest egg producer, producing almost 466 billion eggs in 2018,over a third of world egg production.
GFP is now uniquely positioned in the region to work with bothfood suppliers on cage-free egg production and food buyers on cage-freesourcing, ensuring that both ends of the supply chain improve their profitability and sustainability.
GFP assesses the existing eggsupply chain in-market and then develops a roadmap with actions and strategies to help ensure that companies can implement cage-free sourcing policiesby their deadline. At the same time, GFP also works with egg producers to transitionfrom conventional methods to higher-welfare cage-free production.
GFP has already worked with some of the world’s largest corporations including Accor, Club Medand Grand Hyatt Singapore – including support to develop supplychain roadmaps, as well as to conduct staff and egg supplier training for themin Asian markets including China, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan,Indonesia and The Philippines, as well as other key regions like Russia and theCIS.
Elissa Lane is Co-founder &Chief Executive Officer at Global Food Partners and formerly worked as theDirector for Farm Animal Welfare at the Washington, D.C. HQ of Humane SocietyInternational. She explains how GFP is positioned to empower both local farmersand a wide range of food and hospitality corporations:
"By trainingfarmers in Asia who lack knowledge around implementing cage-free production, wenot only help companies to go cage-free, but also create new supply chains thatallow these same farmers to go to market with products at a higher price - awin-win by any definition. Asia's increased focus on sustainability andresponsible sourcing means that our launch in the region represents aconsiderable new opportunity to drive change."
Inaddition to their one-one-one work with multinational and local Asian food andhospitality corporations, GFP is also launching both virtual and in-person trainingprogrammes and centres. Their virtual training programmes, to be launched thismonth, are tailored to both sides of the supply chain, with both corporate andegg producer-focused courses. The corporate course is designed to help buyers, as well as sustainability and CSR teams ofcorporations work through multiple different topics related to cage-freeproduction and purchasing. GFP’s training centres and model farms, to belaunched by the end of 2021 in Indonesia and China, targets producers, andfocuses on the technical side of farm management and welfare practices. GFP's partnerships withagricultural colleges in Indonesia and China also help these producers with hands-ontraining - allowing the participants to spend a week on a farm and learnabout all the different management issues and practices that they need to knowfor successful cage-free egg production.
As Elissa Lane explains: "Industry training for farmers and businesses in Asiahas often shown models from Europe that understandably don't resonate or work insuch a different cultural and physical environment. Consequently our virtualtrainers - as well as our GFP training centers in Indonesia and China - provideexamples and technical expertise specifically targeted to work in the region. Wewant to ensure that businesses can source cage-free eggs and that farmers are ableto produce cage-free eggs sustainably and for the long-term, by adopting bestpractice management skills on farm skills and practices."
Case Studies
Producer Case Study – Ping Yao Weihai EcologicalAgriculture, China
Some examples of successful producer partnerships includeGFP’s on-going collaboration with PingYao Weihai Ecological Agriculturein PingYao, China to support the establishment and ongoing operations of itsnew cage-free egg rearing and layer hen facilities. The collaboration involvescapacity building of farm staff in cage-free management and bird health andwelfare. GFP technical experts have provided support through on-farm andvirtual consultation to train farm management and staff for the placement of chickson the cage-free rearing farm, as well as support to implement best practicesin cage-free management and layer hen welfare.
Hospitality Case Studies – Club Med & Grand HyattSingapore
GFP is currently working with ClubMed & Grand Hyatt Singapore to support their transition and commitment tocage-free.
“From 2025onward, Club Med will only source cage-free eggs (shell, liquid and eggsproducts) for all resorts in Europe, Brazil and the United States (and from2027 in the other markets).
In Europe,all eggs served with their shell at the buffet already come from free rangehens. GFP has been able to provide us with implementation strategies androadmaps for our Asian operations, markets that we’ve found particularlychallenging in terms of identifying viable cage-free egg suppliers andproducers. We look forward to continuing to work with GFP to ensure we meet ourcage-free targets in the region,” shares Frederic Tiers, Senior Regional Buyerof Club Med’s Purchasing Department.
“We are fortunate enough to havecollaborated with Global Food Partners in the sourcing and usage of onlyethical, cage-free chicken eggs within our hotels, both Grand Hyatt Singaporeand Andaz Singapore. Identifying the origins of products is crucial to ourorganization and having a partner who can recognize opportunities within oursupply chain is of great support to us, as it allows us to serve our guestswell and based on Hyatt International’s global food philosophy of: Food.Thoughtfully Sourced. Carefully Served,” said Chef Lucas Glanville
Director of Culinary Operations, Food & Beverage for Hyatt International(Asia-Pacific)
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Foradditional information, including interview requests please reach out to:
CompanionCommunications
Sneha Rupani-Nagpal – Singapore
sneha@companioncommunications.com
DominiqueBackhouse- Hong Kong
dominique@companioncommunications.com
About Global Food Partners
Global Food Partners (GFP) is a Singapore-based multinational consultancyfirm; that provides expertise to companies, farmers, and industry stakeholderson practicing cage-free egg sourcing and production in Asia.GFP is uniquely positioned to work both with food suppliers on cage-free eggproduction and food buyers on cage-free sourcing, ensuring that both ends ofthe supply chain improve their profitability and sustainability. The team has more than50 years of corporate and on-farm experience developing and executing animalwelfare policies and production practices, and has worked with governments andegg industries globally, including throughout Latin America, Asia and Australiaon the implementation of cage-free egg standards and transitioning to andmaintaining higher welfarecage-free systems. www.globalfoodpartners.com