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Special Recognition Awards are given to companies that demonstrate outstanding innovation, commitment or achievement in the field of farm animal welfare.
2024 Special Recognition Award
A Special Recognition Award was presented to Chilean producer CERMAQ for their commitment to humane stunning methods for salmon.
Cermaq is the second-largest Atlantic salmon producer to adopt a global humane slaughter policy - following Mowi ASA’s commitment in 2022.
This commitment applies to all their farms and operations in Norway, Chile, and Canada, benefiting over 45 million salmon annually.
Henrik Duesund, Global Fish Health Manager Feed & Fish Health Innovation at Cermaq said: “We are honoured to receive a Special Recognition for the work to secure humane slaughter. Cermaq’s goal is to ensure that the animals are treated with respect and care, even in their final moments. We want to acknowledge the work CIWF is doing to bring attention to this important topic.”
2022 Special Recognition Awards
As part of its 2022 Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards Compassion was delighted to recognise two companies that are showing leadership in their respective fields.
Special recognition for humane salmon slaughter
MOWI received a Special Recognition Award this year for becoming the first producer to make global commitments on the humane slaughter of Atlantic salmon.
As the world’s largest producer of Atlantic salmon (~465,000 metric tons of salmon (GWT) per annum), this commitment is set to benefit ~122 million salmon per annum, across sites in Norway, Scotland, Ireland, Faroe Islands, Canada and Chile, and provides an excellent example for others to follow.
In accordance with Compassion’s recommendations, MOWI uses a stun-kill percussive system for 100% of their salmon from all their farm sites, and across all countries, to ensure they are humanely killed.
Dr Gordon Ritchie, Group Manager Fish Health & Welfare at Mowi ASA said: "Mowi are very proud to receive this prestigious award from CIWF, for recognition of our standard on the humane slaughter of fish using percussive stunning. This policy, which matches CIWF’s Flagship recommendation, is applied to all our ocean reared salmon globally, harvested on an annual basis. By recognising the importance of fish sentience, Mowi has implemented several other husbandry standards directed towards the welfare and well-being of our fish.
As the largest producer of ocean reared salmon, it is our responsibility to develop industry leading standards on welfare and sustainable practices and to make continuous improvements, all underpinned by investment in robust research and development by dedicated teams across the entire value chain.
Mowi would like to thank CIWF for their continued direction and consultation in leading us forward and targeting other Flagship recommendations”
Recognising higher welfare, sustainable broiler production
Norwegian producer Norsk Kylling received a Special Recognition Award this year for converting 100% of their chicken production to the higher welfare criteria of European Chicken Commitment, achieving their transition through their ‘Green value chain’ project.
The project has seen Norsk Kylling adopt a holistic approach to sustainable and higher welfare production, setting new standards for reducing energy consumption, waste, and their environmental footprint, while improving production efficiency, animal welfare, and developing novel feed ingredients.
As part of this process, they have also reached another major milestone as their greenfield processing plant is completely powered by renewable energy.
It demonstrates that animal welfare, sustainable food production and profitability can all be achieved simultaneously in broiler chicken production.
Hilde Talseth, Director of Sustainable Innovation General Manager Hugaas Rugeri said: “We work actively in all parts of our value chain to find new, innovative, responsible, and sustainable solutions. Through cooperation and a circular mindset and in close collaboration with competent and engaged people, we have successfully established a promising project portfolio.
This award is for us a great acknowledgement that will add to our motivation as we keep working to build the world’s best value chain in the food industry.”
Read this case study to find out more about their work.
2022 Rabbit Innovation Awards
In 2022 Compassion was delighted to award two companies that are leading the way on cage-free rabbit production for meat rabbits.
Spanning two different geographies, BreFood in Germany and Wisium in France both received Rabbit Innovation Awards for developing innovative cage-free rearing systems for meat rabbits with permanent access to winter gardens. Read more here.
