Somkid Wannalukkhee, Senior Vice President of CPF, commented that the Wang Somboon farm on display obtained Thailand's first cage-free certification.

In the first few months of 2021, the Ministry of Animal Husbandry of Thailand began to implement the cage-free breeding standard and invited eligible farms to register for certification.

CPF’s Wang Somboon Farm was the first to apply because it has been designed as a showcase free range farm since its establishment in 2018. The subsequent inspection went smoothly and was certified. Somkid explained: “Cage-free certification is an important milestone for Wang Somboon Farm and Thailand’s laying hen industry, which is striving to meet international standards. The certification also reflects CP Foods’ commitment to strengthening Thailand’s agricultural sector’s food safety and animal welfare standards. To improve the competitiveness of Thai products and support sustainable consumption."

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CPF's cage-free production strategy is designed to meet the future needs of the food industry. CP Foods’ Wang Somboon farm has been using the EU standard farming model for cage-free production since 2018. The breeding of laying hens is based on the internationally recognized "five freedoms": freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from discomfort, freedom from pain, injury and disease, freedom from fear and suffering, and freedom to express animal instincts and behavior. Therefore, the hen is happy, healthy and antibiotic-free all her life.

Nestlé, Unilever, Hilton and other international food companies and hotels have set 2025 as the deadline to start purchasing cage-free eggs for their supply chains. In Thailand, British retailer Tesco will only sell cage-free eggs by 2030. “The quality of CPF cage-free eggs is the same as high-quality imported Japanese eggs that are odorless and can be eaten raw. But our eggs are fresher and the price is much cheaper,” Somkid said.

In addition to complying with strict cage-free standards and animal welfare guidelines, another major obstacle is to provide sufficient quantities to ensure that customers can obtain uninterrupted supply. Somkid said that this requires a lot of patience and money, so that only a few manufacturers are capable of this task.

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Currently, CPF produces about 10 million cageless eggs per year, but based on the current capacity of Wang Somboon Farm in Saraburi, 100 kilometers northeast of Bangkok, this number may increase to 35 million. The farm was originally built in 2002 as a broiler breeder farm covering an area of ​​22.8 hectares. Later, in 2018, it was refurbished to adapt to cageless layer breeding.

In cage-free production, layer houses and young hen houses must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected before feeding. Wang Somboon uses a single-age production system. The laying hens came from the same source and were transferred to the production house at 16 weeks of age. The hens are familiar with the new house for about 2 weeks before laying eggs. At present, there are 7-story chicken houses (12×120 meters) with a total of 70,000 birds. At present, this has created a sufficient supply of eggs of various sizes, which can be supplied to customers throughout the year.

There is also a small chicken house, using a floor-raising system, with evaporative cooling, deep litter, habitat and other enrichments. Day-old chicks receive infrared beak treatment to reduce the damage caused by feather pecking and the risk of cannibalism. The tip of the beak will fall off at 5-7 days of age. Compared with the traditional cauterization method, this treatment will not cause harm to the chicks. They are raised in closed houses to prevent pesticide contamination and intestinal worms.

The breeding animals are tested to ensure that they are free of Salmonella. Management aims to minimize the risk of Salmonella caused by stress caused by genetics, age, and overcrowding. The pest control program keeps wild birds and rodents out. The mother seed hatchery is fully automated to minimize operators and prevent human error and contamination.

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On the 18th day, when the eggs are moved from the incubator to the hatcher, the pulse sensor replaces the light classification. Birds are generally healthier. According to the recommendations of the Thai Egg Commission, feed consumption increases with additional freedom of movement, and a culling age of 75 weeks is observed.

Cage-free production is costly, because compared with traditional battery cage production, there are 8 times less poultry that can be raised in the same space. Somkid said this is a major obstacle because most customers are not even willing to pay twice the price of traditional eggs. The stocking density is 5-7 per square meter, which is lower than the recommended 9 per square meter. It covers an area of ​​1,100 cm2/bird. The feeding space of the pan feeder is 4.3 cm per bird, and there are 1.25 nipple drinkers for every 10 chickens. These birds are fed randomly. Rice husk is used as litter. The habitat is installed at a distance of 20 cm from the wall, and the distance between habitats is 30 cm. The perching space is 15 cm/bird.

There is a common nesting area. A 100-meter-long colony extends from the front to the back of the house. Various nest types are being tested to find the most effective nest type. Feeders and drinkers are placed above the slats to encourage birds to jump up and use the nest. The goal is to make the nest area the most attractive place for hens to lay eggs in order to keep floor eggs below 1% of the total.

Each 120 hens can use about 1.4 square meters of nest space, which is again much larger than the EU recommended standard of 1 square meter/120 chickens. Compared with 200,000 in a typical cage production system, each breeder has to take care of 10,000 chickens. The staff regularly inspect the chickens several times a day to remove dead birds.

CPF uses Hyline Brown because of its comprehensive egg quality, over 90% of typical Huff units, and excellent egg shell quality. Eggs are sorted on site, mainly to remove those eggs with deformed, dirty and defective eggshells. They were then transported by refrigerated trucks to the CPF joint grading facility in Nakorn Nayok, 90 kilometers away from the farm, for cleaning, UV disinfection and grading. The classifier can automatically detect blood spots and cracks. The quality control (QC) team of the grading facility collects eggshell swabs every day to detect the presence of Salmonella. They also monitor eggshell thickness, eggshell strength, Huff units, egg weight, egg yolk color, etc.

CPF exports about 3% of its total output to stabilize domestic prices, and about 12% of its total output is used to process eggs. Currently, the company produces approximately 6 million eggs per day. In the edible egg market, CPF is further penetrating modern trade outlets and other market segments, such as food service operators in the hotel industry. It also provides small packages to better meet the needs of today's small families.

CPF is always ready to increase production capacity according to market demand. It recently launched 4 egg-packed cage-free eggs in 7-11 stores in the Bangkok area and now serves top restaurants such as Jay Fai Restaurant, DonDonDonki and Mo-Mo Paradise. Eggs can also be purchased from Makro wholesalers. New customers that are developing processed eggs, such as tofu manufacturers and bakeries. CPF annually supplies 10,000 tons of liquid eggs to buyers in the domestic market.

CPF has recently started to refurbish its layer business. The main purpose of the new investment is to establish good relations with neighboring communities. All CPF farms now have dust and ammonia traps behind the exhaust fans to minimize odors and environmental damage. It also pursues a zero-waste policy and mainly invests in biogas reactors that use bed manure as fuel. It has also improved manure handling to minimize ammonia content so as not to destroy methanogenic microorganisms.

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The new technology makes CPF produce three times the methane output of traditional layer manure fermentation. Thailand began to collect biogas mainly from pig manure 20 years ago. Although layered biogas has long been seen as slower and less efficient, Somkid points out that new production methods are closing the efficiency gap.

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