Collaborations with growers

Scandi Standard has long-term collaborations with selected growers in each country. The growers’ knowledge, understanding and care for chickens is the most important factor for guaranteeing good animal welfare and for creating conditions conducive to healthy, thriving and growing chickens.

Providing the best possible conditions

The wellbeing of a chicken when it is hatched greatly affects the chicken’s health and growth for the rest of its life. Choosing good parent birds and handling the fertilised eggs correctly during the incubation period ensures that the chicks are strong and healthy from the onset.

Efficient feed for thriving chickens

The rearing of chickens is resource efficient compared with many other animals, and one the most important KPIs during this period, is feed efficiency. Nutrient content and feed quality have a major impact both on the health of chickens and on the efficiency of feed use. Good feed efficiency is an indicator of quality feed and how well the chickens are being cared for.

Active work to reduce antibiotics usage

Growing antibiotic resistance is a serious global health challenge. Scandi Standard thus has an important role to play in minimising the use of antibiotics in food production. In line with Nordic legislation, antibiotics are not to be used as a preventive measure. Only sick animals may be treated, following a decision by a veterinarian. The use of antibiotics among Nordic growers is also very low, which is an indicator of good animal husbandry.

In Ireland, where local legislation differs from Nordic legislation, our operations have adhered to Nordic principles and reduced antibiotics usage from around 70 per cent when the company was acquired in 2017, to about 40 per cent in 2022. Our long-term Group target is for the per centage of flocks treated with antibiotics to be lower than 1 per cent by 2030.

“Choosing good parent birds and handling the fertilised eggs correctly during the incubation period ensures that the chicks that hatch are strong and healthy.”

Knowledge distribution to growers

In 2021, Scandi Standard established a Center of Excellence with the aim of developing knowledge, work methods and processes around animal welfare and chicken rearing, and disseminating this information throughout our value chain and among our growers. During the first year, focus was on developing more sustainable feed by using local ingredients to replace a significant amount of the soy protein in the feed. In 2022, the new feed was tested in both Finland and Sweden, with promising results, and agreements have been signed with external feed specialists.

The primary focal point of the Centre of Excellence in 2022 was to launch Scandi Standard’s Chicken Quality Programme – a results-based improvement programme to raise the quality of the chickens that are delivered by Scandi Standard’s contracted growers. Each grower is measured using eleven KPIs linked to performance within animal welfare, quality, food safety and productivity. These provide a clear overview of how each rearing facility operated by Scandi Standard’s growers is performing. Based on the results, Scandi Standard then collaborates with the grower to develop customised action packages for the lowest performing pens. The aim is to systematically and continuously improve operations, by inserting concrete measures where they make the most difference. This is beneficial for chickens, growers, Scandi Standard and ultimately, consumers. During the year, we initiated the programme in Ireland and conducted ten training sessions to present the programme.