Europe tells the Netherlands to treat chickens better. After nearly 20 years, the country will comply. Will chickens benefit?

After nearly two decades of applying its own interpretation of European broiler rules, the Netherlands says it will finally align with the European limit. The agriculture ministry aims to introduce the revised rules in 2027.

The European Commission said last year that so-called “exploding chickens”, birds bred to reach slaughter weight in six weeks, often have too little space in Dutch farms. European rules generally allow 16 broilers per square meter. The Netherlands has used an exception permitting as many as 21, provided premature mortality does not exceed about 3.5 percent.

Under the planned change, the Netherlands will no longer avoid that condition. But whether the birds will actually gain much space remains uncertain. The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, known as the NVWA, says it lacks the time and personnel to check the mortality standard routinely. It acts only when it receives signals of a possible violation, and it does not require farmers who breach the standard to reduce stocking density. The authority calls that the farmer's own responsibility, effectively leaving the matter to self-regulation.

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Looking away has cost countless chickens their lives.

Animal-welfare group Wakker Dier had already alerted the European Commission in 2023 that the Netherlands was breaching the rules. Its director, Anne Hilhorst, called the ministry's decision a breakthrough, saying that looking away had cost countless chickens their lives. At the same time, the organization said the NVWA must do more and urged continuous review of mortality figures from every poultry farmer.

The revised rules would cover roughly 150 million broilers produced each year by more than 600 Dutch poultry farms. That represents more than half of the country's annual chicken production, according to 2024 data from Wageningen University & Research. The remaining 140 million chicks are sold as fresh chicken under the Beter Leven animal-welfare label, which allows no more than 12 chickens per square meter. Most of the densely raised, lower-cost broilers are intended for export to neighboring countries, where free-range chicken is not the standard for fresh meat in supermarkets.

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The NVWA must get to work.