Britain's supermarkets risk having no eggs by Christmas, poultry farmers have warned. As shoppers complain of shortages, the farmers are blaming them on retailers being unwilling to pay enough for the product.
The farmers say they are battling rising production costs, including feed and energy, but while supermarkets are putting up the prices they charge customers, they are not paying enough to make production worthwhile, the Daily Express reported.
Ioan Humphries, a Welsh farmer who farms sheep, cattle, and hens, aired his grievances on his Instagram this week. He said: "It's me again with another egg video. I thought I'd better get this out there before the supermarkets put their story across and cancel everyone else out.
"So, when you go into a supermarket now, you might see there is a bit of an egg shortage. Not many eggs on the shelves, no free range, no organic, nothing. So, you're struggling to find eggs.
"Supermarkets are going to tell you this is because of avian flu, which, to be fair, there has been a lot of cases of avian flu. But do you want to know the real reason why there's an egg shortage? It's because the supermarkets won't pay the farmers for the eggs. So, the supermarkets have upped their price for you the consumer, but they haven't filtered that price increase down to us the farmers."
Ioan went on to explain that the cost of producing eggs for farmers has "skyrocketed". British farmers have to take into account the costs of feed, electricity, and the price of new birds, which have all increased.
"We physically can't afford to produce these eggs," Ioan added. "So, currently there's been eight million less free range hens ordered for next year's flocks." The cost of buying a flock, of around 32,000 hens on average, has increased by 15 percent. Meanwhile, cost of feed has increased by 50 percent, and labour costs have risen by seven percent.
Ben Pike of the British Free Range Egg Producers Association (BFREPA) said farmers are pausing production and not restocking flocks amid the ongoing financial pressures, with the average poultry farmer in BFREPA losing around £10 per hen.
In a recent survey of 157 BFREPA affiliated poultry farmers, 33 percent have reduced or completely stopped their egg production due to the unsustainable losses. Mr Pike said: "There is grave concern in the industry. There are fewer eggs available this year. I don’t know where retailers will get them from. As for the farmers, it's upsetting, as the production is now completely out of their control."
Charles Mears, a poultry farmer from Cambridgeshire, told the Telegraph that the cost of egg production is a "genuine threat to the industry". He explained: "We've been warning people for a long time, but people have been expecting cheap food, which just isn’t sustainable.
"It’s like watching a slow car crash. If the Government does not intervene to support farmers, there will be no eggs by Christmas."
Retailers are likely to source eggs from eastern Europe, where labour costs are lower, if British eggs are unavailable. But provenance and carbon footprint could be harder to prove in this case, the BFREPA warned.
And the war in Ukraine means the country is no longer a reliable source for egg exportation, putting mounting pressure on British retailers. Notices have been placed on supermarket shelves this week to warn customers of the shortage.
In Dorking's Sainsbury's store, a sign stated: "We are currently experiencing supply issues across our fresh eggs range, we are working hard to resolve these and apologise for any inconvenience caused."
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