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Mercadona, still Spain's favourite supermarket, is throwing its weight behind a major animal welfare shift after its leading egg supplier committed €200 million to eliminating cages from its chicken farms.

Huevos Guillén, the Valencia-based producer that supplies the vast majority of its eggs to Mercadona, plans to remove cages completely from its farms and supply chain within four years.

 

The investment will be spread across the period, with around €116 million going in during 2026 and 2027, followed by a further €84 million over the two years after that.

 

Huevos Guillén is aiming for 100% of its fresh egg production to be cage-free by 2028, provided it receives the necessary permits on time.

 

It's a significant step for a company that already runs one of the largest cage-free egg operations in Spain, and it comes as more shoppers pay closer attention to how their food is produced and where it comes from.

 

By the end of this year, Huevos Guillén expects to have around 6.13 million laying hens, up by 675,000 compared with 2025. Around 80% of those hens will be kept in alternative, cage-free systems, compared with 73% last year and 60% in 2024. The company expects that percentage to keep climbing until cages are phased out for good.

 

Around 93% of Huevos Guillén's cage-free eggs end up on Mercadona's shelves, so the change is likely to be felt by a huge number of households across Spain as it rolls out.

 

Huevos Guillén expects its flock to grow to around 10 million hens by 2030 as production capacity expands further.

 

Financially, the company is heading for a record year too, with turnover forecast at around €385 million in 2026. That would be an 18% rise on the €326 million recorded in 2025, and almost 47% higher than the €262 million turnover from 2024.

 

The move comes amid growing pressure across Europe to keep farm animals out of cages altogether. The European Commission confirmed in July that it plans to introduce a ban on cages for laying hens and broiler chickens, along with a separate measure covering sows.

 

That decision followed years of campaigning by animal welfare groups and the European Citizens' Initiative End the Cage Age, which was backed by 1.4 million people across Europe and more than 170 organisations.

 

For many shoppers, this is part of a broader change in how people think about food. Where an egg comes from, and how the hen that laid it was kept, is increasingly factoring into buying decisions rather than being something people overlook.

 

With Mercadona relying so heavily on Huevos Guillén for its eggs, shoppers across Spain could start noticing the difference every time they open the fridge.

 

Images: Freepik