Evaluating the Economic Impacts of a Cage-Free Animal Welfare Policy in Southeast Asian and Indian Egg Production: A Systematic Review

Ren Ryba

Evaluation Review, 2025, vol. 49, issue 3, 564-593

Abstract: Animal welfare is increasingly understood to be a key component of sustainable agricultural production. Southeast Asia and India are witnessing an emerging market for cage-free egg production. To evaluate the economic sustainability of cage-free policies in the region, it is critical to understand how this transition will affect farmers’ costs and revenues. In this article, we provide an overview of the available information that can inform evaluations of cage-free egg production in Southeast Asia and India. Cage-free egg producers around the world tend to experience higher costs, but these costs are offset by higher revenues. As demand for cage-free eggs is stimulated in Southeast Asia and India by retailer or government policies, we expect that producers will be capable of meeting this demand. In Asia specifically, the dominant cost component is poultry feed. We conclude that the economic viability of egg production in the region is likely to be driven by feed prices and associated government policies, rather than production system per se .

Keywords: agricultural development; animal welfare; aviaries; barns; eggs; hens; poultry; N55; O13; Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0193841X241280681 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:evarev:v:49:y:2025:i:3:p:564-593

DOI: 10.1177/0193841X241280681

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Evaluation Review
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().