-- International animal protection charity's praise follows criticism of the 
company from Japanese celebrities in the US 

Costco Wholesale, the world's second largest retailer, won praise today from 
international animal protection non-profit Lever Foundation for a new animal 
welfare policy that includes banning cages for animals in its global egg supply 
chain over time. The move covers all Costco Japan stores as well as the 
company's stores in South Korea, Taiwan, and mainland China. 

"Shifting to cage-free eggs is the right thing to do for customers and for 
animal welfare, and we encourage Costco Japan to act swiftly in implementing 
this cage-free commitment." said Lily Tse, program manager at Lever Foundation 
( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3022962-1&h=3925665524&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.leverfoundation.org%2F&a=Lever+Foundation%2C 
), an animal protection non-profit that worked with Costco for the past two 
years on on expanding their animal welfare commitments internationally. "Over 
fifty of the world's largest food companies have now committed to use only 
cage-free eggs globally, including Japan. Costco's pledge to do the same will 
boost animal welfare and will benefit their Japanese customers." 

Costco's commitment was shared with investors over email. "We are in the 
process of making that transition [to cage-free eggs]," noted Josh Dahmen, 
Financial Planning and Investor Relations Director for Costco in an email to 
investors ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3022962-1&h=377141009&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dropbox.com%2Fsh%2Fwgg7fp5t6ez4fl4%2FAAACBszXjHNu6Ni4cG1gSFNua%3Fdl%3D0&a=an+email+to+investors 
). "We will continue to increase the percentage over time, with a goal of 
eventually getting to 100%, although this may take several years in some 
countries, due to issues with availability." 

Costco is the second retailer to commit to selling only cage-free eggs in 
Japan, after METRO. The  decision comes in the wake of criticism from NGOs ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3022962-1&h=2804770045&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.costco-eggs.com%2F&a=NGOs 
) and Japanese celebrities ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3022962-1&h=2872320121&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cheatsheet.com%2Fentertainment%2Fcostco-is-still-selling-caged-eggs-in-asia-and-steve-aoki-and-the-walking-deads-eleanor-matsuura-are-asking-them-to-stop.html%2F&a=Japanese+celebrities 
), including The Walking Dead star Eleanor Matsuura and Grammy-nominated 
musician Steve Aoki. "We are asking you to please set a reasonable time frame 
to end the sale of caged eggs in Asia, just as you have done everywhere else in 
the world." said the celebrities in an open letter to the company.

Studies by the European Food Safety Authority ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3022962-1&h=2560779417&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.efsa.europa.eu%2Fen%2Fefsajournal%2Fpub%2Frn-97&a=European+Food+Safety+Authority 
) and others found caged egg farms have higher rates of contamination from key 
salmonella strains compared to cage-free farms. Among the 12 regions where 
Costco operates worldwide, Japan ranks low in terms of the percentage of 
cage-free eggs it sells, amounting to less than 1% in fiscal year 2020. 

CONTACT
Lily Tse, lilytse@lever.hk, +852-5612-3303

SOURCE: Lever Foundation