Wal-Mart Says All Of Its Eggs Will Come From Cage-Free Sources By 2025

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. WMT announced on Tuesday it plans on transitioning to a 100 percent cage-free egg supply chain by 2025 as part of a commitment to "continuously improving the company's food supply chain while maintaining the affordable prices that customers expect."

Wal-Mart added its decision is consistent with the "Five Freedoms" of animal welfare for farm animals in its supply chain. The company added it has been offering consumers the choice of a cage free egg product since 2001 and will continue working with farmers, suppliers, government agencies, academics, NGOs, animal health companies and other key stakeholders to "assess and improve" how it sells food to its client base.

"Our customers and associates count on Walmart and Sam's Club to deliver on affordability and quality, while at the same time offering transparency into how their food is grown and raised," said Kathleen McLaughlin, chief sustainability officer at Walmart. "Our commitment to transition to a cage-free egg supply chain recognizes that expectation and represents another step we are taking to improve transparency for food we sell in our U.S. stores and clubs."

Shares of Wal-Mart were trading higher by 0.26 percent Wednesday morning and are lower by around 15 percent over the past year.