Poultry
Baiada have a range of free range chicken products under the Lilydale brand. Baiada bought Bartter Enterprises (Steggles) in 2009, becoming Australia's largest producer and marketer of chicken and turkey products.
Company Assessment
(Last updated Jun 2024)
Praise
Criticism
Information
Baiada Poultry Pty Ltd
Praise
Criticism
Information
3/5 for packaging performance
This company received a packaging performance level of 3 (Advanced) in its 2024 APCO Annual Report. Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) is a not-for-profit organisation leading the development of a circular economy for packaging in Australia. Each year, APCO Members are required to submit an APCO Annual Report and Action Plan, which includes an overall performance level from 1 (Getting Started) to 5 (Beyond Best Practice).
Source: APCO
(2024)
Labour exploitation in Australia
This 4 Corners investigation from May 2015 revealed that Baiada uses labour hire companies which underpay and mistreat workers. Workers endure wages well below legal limits, punishing working hours, and allegations of abuse, harassment and assault.
Source: ABC
(2015)
Labour exploitation in Australia
An Inquiry into Baiada by the Fair Work Ombudsman found exploitation of a labour pool comprised predominantly of overseas workers in Australia on the 417 working holiday visa. Exploitation included significant underpayments, extremely long hours of work, high rents for overcrowded and unsafe worker accommodation, discrimination and misclassification of employees as contractors.
Source: news article
(2015)
False advertising for 'free to roam'
The Australian Federal Court found processors and suppliers of Steggles products, engaged in 'false, misleading and deceptive conduct' in describing that its meat chickens were 'free to roam' in large barns when this was not the case. (June 10, 2013)
Source: Aus Food News
(2013)
Factory Farming
This company produces factory farmed chicken meat. Broiler chickens can legally be confined at a density that gives each bird less space than an single A4 sheet of paper. Every year in Australia 550 million chickens endure short and unnatural lives inside factory farms. This approach is fundamentally at odds with chicken welfare.
Source: Animals Australia
(2019)
Fined for uncontrolled discharge
In July 2016 the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) fined Baiada $15,000 after an unauthorised and uncontrolled discharge of waste from its poultry abattoir premises at Out Street, Tamworth on 20 August 2015. The incident would have been prevented if scheduled maintenance had been carried out as planned.
Source: EPA
(2016)
Underpaying workers
Baiada subsidiary BPLA entered into an Enforceable Undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman in Jan 2012 after it was discovered that BPLA underpaid employees at its Wingfield plant almost $60,000. All of the underpayments have been rectified.
Source: Fair Work Ombudsman
(2012)
Unsafe workplace
Cited in 2010 by the state OHS agency WorkSafe for unsafe practices resulting in the decapitation death of immigrant contract worker Sarel Singh. (Further concerns that Baiada workers work in a climate of fear and uncertainty as they are told they cannot access workers compensation if they are injured at work).
Source: IUF
(2010)
2022 CHOICE Shonky Award
Named and shamed in the 2022 CHOICE Shonky Awards for "hiding veggies so well that we could barely find them" in their Steggles Chicken Nuggets Boosted with Veggies.
Source: Choice
(2022)
Palm oil free products
Some, but not necessarily all, of this company's frozen food products are palm oil free. For more details, follow the link to see Borneo Orangutan Survival Australia's list of products which manufacturers have told them are palm oil free or contain segregated certified sustainable palm oil.
Source: BOS Australia
(2020)
Improved workplace practices
Baiada has improved its workplace practices since 2015 findings of employee exploitation, according to a 2016 report by the Fair Work Ombudsman. Baiada has undertaken to ensure it knows who is working on its sites, and that they have been paid correctly. Baiada has also ensured workers previously underpaid have been able to claim backpay and, where a contractor has not rectified an underpayment, Baiada has taken responsibility and paid-up. The improvements are a result of entering into a Compliance Partnership with the Fair Work Ombudsman in late 2015. However the real test is whether the culture has shifted to one of compliance throughout Baiada's labour supply chain and across all its sites. The Fair Work Ombudsman is continuing to monitor compliance.
Source: news article
(2016)
FREPA accreditation
Baiada's Lilydale free range chicken is certified by Free Range Egg and Poultry Australia (FREPA). However this only represents a small percentage of this company's total chicken meat production.
Source: FREPA
(2020)
Farm Transparency Project profile
The Farm Transparency Project Repository is a public repository/gallery for videos, photos, documents and campaign materials relating to the animal rights movement in Australia. Follow the link to see their profile on this company.
Source: Farm Transparency Project
(2022)
Company Details
Type:
Family-owned private company
Subsidiaries:
Bartter Enterprises
Poultry farming
Baiada, formerly Australia's third largest producer and marketer of chicken and turkey products, bought Bartter Enterprises (Steggles), to become Australia's largest, making Ingham the second largest. To gain ACCC approval, Baiada divested all assets currently owned by Bartter in Victoria to La Ionica Poultry.
Contact Details
Address:
642 Great Western Highway, Pendle Hill, NSW, 2145, Australia
Phone:
1300 137 372
Website: