– 48 øre per kilo, it’s probably fragile, when it costs NOK 60 in the shop, says Halvor Sveen. He runs a farm with both egg and meat production in Rendalen in Innlandet. This year he handed in 7,300 hens for slaughter to be used for food. For five tonnes of chicken meat, the farmer was paid NOK 1,964 in the slaughter settlement. THE SETTLEMENT: The settlement from Nortura shows that Sveen was paid a total of NOK 1,964 for over 7,000 hens. Photo: Frode Meskau / news – Here are some actors who profit from what we have delivered. I think that is unfair, he says. Sveen believes that it is not the farmers who profit from the agricultural settlement. – But we are the ones who get the heat and the complaints that the food is expensive. Worth several hundred thousand In the freezer at Coop Extra Kallerud in Gjøvik, lies the hen that has gone viral after the farmer from Rendalen shared his frustration on Facebook. There, the price is NOK 60.70 per kilo. In the shop, all the meat the farmer delivered has a value of NOK 337,856. – A big bias Sveen is very pleased that the post has been shared so many times. – This is important. Society has become such that it is the strong who are allowed to express themselves, he says. Sveen believes that in this case it is “we at the bottom” who have had a say. He is also keen to show that this bias does not apply to chickens, but also to sheep, pigs, goats and horses. Photo: Reidar Gregersen / news Communications manager at Coop, Harald Kristiansen, understands that the farmer reacts to the amount he is paid. – At the same time, I think he also knows that there are a lot of stages this has to go through, says Kristiansen. – And all those links have to cover their costs and earn a few kroner along the way. In the end, it ends up at Coop at NOK 60 and 70 øre as of today. Small profit Before the hen ends up in the freezer at Coop, it is sold on by Vingulmark. – No one makes a lot of money from this product, and the effort has been to use the laying hen as food instead of it being thrown away or going to glue, writes Ole-Jonny Magnussen in Vingulmark in an e-mail to news. – The farmer earns most of his money from egg production and some from delivering hens for slaughter. In the shop, a kilo of chicken meat costs NOK 60.70. The farmer was paid NOK 0.48 per kilo. Photo: Reidar Gregersen / news The hens Sveen delivered for slaughter are so-called laying hens. There are hens that have been used for egg production. When they no longer produce eggs, the farmer has two choices: Either destroy them, or deliver them for slaughter – as the farmer did in this case. – What is important to us is that the hen is just in our freezer, and that it has not been destroyed, says Kristiansen. Communications manager at Coop, Harald Kristiansen, understands that the farmer reacts to the amount he received for the animals he sent to slaughter. Photo: Reidar Gregersen / news Communications advisor at Nortura, Marthine Haugen Petersen, writes in an e-mail to news that Nortura does not make any kind of profit from this. The vast majority of laying hens in Norway are destroyed because demand is low, according to Petersen. – Nortura still slaughters some flocks of laying hens for a customer, who in turn are the ones who sell the hens for groceries. For Nortura, this has been an attempt to contribute to more chickens ending up as food, she writes. – Something is wrong Leader of the Inlandet farming association, Elisabeth Gjems, reacts to the calculation. She thinks it is not worthy that the farmer was left with barely NOK 2,000 after delivering 7,300 hens for slaughter. – It clearly shows that something is wrong with the value chain for food and the distribution of the values that are created. Here, there are some who make good margins along the way. THE FARMERS’ TEAM: – It does not belong anywhere that it is this way. The danger is that profitability is so low that people count on the buttons to continue in the industry. This example here shows very clearly that there is something wrong here, says Elisabeth Gjems, leader of the Innlandet bondelag. Photo: Knut Røsrud / news In this case, the hens were delivered for slaughter at Nortura, which is a farmer-owned butcher’s cooperative. – Their aim is to get the best possible result for the farmer. I see it the way that the arrows point towards the grocery chains. Gjems believes the authorities should take a closer look at the distribution of power in the grocery market, how prices are set and what is given back to the farmer. – Chicken meat will be a hit Halvor Sveen is convinced that there is a market for meat from adult hens. He urges the authorities to facilitate this. – I’m sure it will be a hit. We have received many new compatriots who really appreciate chicken meat. We must utilize the resources that exist, he says. FRUSTRATED: Håkon Sveen is not impressed with the price he got for his hens. Photo: Frode Meskau / news At the same time, Sveen is frustrated with the other players in the value chains. He believes that the farmers deserve a larger share of the cake: – It is the farmers who create the value base here, and then it is only fair and reasonable that they get to participate and share in the profits. news has tried to get a comment from the Ministry of Agriculture, which has not responded to the inquiry.
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Delivered 7,300 hens for slaughter – received barely NOK 2,000 – news Innlandet – Local news, TV and radio
