The British Egg Industry Council has warned that “uncontrollable input costs” could put the UK’s egg supply in jeopardy unless retailers raise the price of a dozen eggs by at least 40p for consumers.
According to the Council, input costs have increased by around 30 per cent due to the surging input costs that have been pushed up further still by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Council has written to the Chief Executives of the large UK supermarkets calling for consumer prices for eggs to increase, with the British Free Range Egg Association insisting that the price of a dozen eggs should rise by 40p with immediate effect.
The letter states that there has been “a tidal wave” of cost increases, which will see many family farms, some of which have been producing eggs for generations, going under in a matter of days unless something is done quickly.”
It goes on to say that there has been a 50 per cent increase in the cost of feed and a 40 per cent rise in energy costs. The war in Ukraine has added to this. Mainly because feed consists of grain, and a large proportion of which is produced there have added costs of up to 30p to a dozen eggs.
The national flock, including caged birds, has already declined by about 4 million birds in the past year. The industry has also been hit by the UK’s worst-ever avian flu outbreak, particularly producers of normally free-range eggs, as they have been forced to keep their birds inside.
The British Free Range Egg Producers Association has joined the call for retail price increases saying that farmers have been “cut adrift by an unrelenting squeeze of their profit margins, which have now been completely eroded in many cases.”
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