Cheap, fast-bred broiler chicken – known as plofkip – is set to disappear from Dutch supermarket shelves from 2015 and to be completely phased out by 2020, faster than originally agreed.

Representatives of supermarkets, abattoirs and poultry farms agreed the new date late on Monday, according to the Volkskrant.

Currently, most supermarket chicken is of a fast-growing breed, kept in such small spaces they can barely stand and pumped full of antibiotics to cope with infections.

From 2015, chickens reared for Dutch supermarkets will be of a slower-growing breed. They will be given 10% more space, six hours sleep instead of just four and have straw and grain to ‘play’ with.

Campaign

The supermarkets are gradually changing the type of chicken they offer, following a campaign by animal rights group Wakker Dier to rid the industry of what it calls the plofkip. That change will now be speeded up.

Retail food group CBL told the Volkskrant it does not know what the effect will be for the consumer. Supermarkets will make their own decisions on whether or not to hand on the extra costs to their customers.

The change-over should be complete by 2020, although the plofkip will still be reared for export. Only some 30% of the chicken produced in the Netherlands is for the domestic market.