Extra 40p needed to save the free-range egg industry

Pleas to introduce a small price rise to prevent the free-range egg industry from going bust have been ignored by major UK retailers, industry bodies have claimed.

Farmers, along with the British Egg Industry Council, have called for an immediate price rise of 40p per dozen free-range eggs sold at the UK’s major retailers, to avoid catastrophe within the sector.

Farmers have seen a huge increase in production costs, particularly in feed and energy, which have been accelerated by the Russia-Ukraine war. Within the last two years feed prices have increased by 50 per cent, with many farmers choosing to stop producing rather than risk losing their farms.

Last year saw a significant decrease of 4 million birds within the national flock, with this number set to rise as some farmers say they can only last six months before they go bust, while others are already on the brink. At present, farmers are losing money on every single egg laid by one of their hens.

Worryingly, the dire situation has been raised with all of the major retailers by the British Free Range Egg Producers Association (BFREPA). None of them have replied, the organisation claims.

BFREPA’s chief executive, Robert Gooch, said: “Enough is enough. The sectors appeal for help can’t be ignored any longer.

“[We have seen a] small rise in egg prices in shops but the money has evaporated before it gets to the farm gate. The free-range egg sector is in crisis.”

Dan Brown, who has 44,000 hens in Suffolk, said the sector ’will be in serious trouble if the market hasn’t turned by autumn’, highlighting retailers ’must know that if they carry on like this then there will be no eggs’ by later in the year.

Tom Pope, who has been in free-range egg production for six months, describes the situation as ‘dire’. After the energy price rise, his energy bill will be at an astronomical 40,000 a year.

BFREPA is calling a crisis summit for retailers and packers to highlight what they are doing to help support farmers as worry over the future of free-range eggs continues to mount.