Egg farmers are reducing herd size or leaving the industry because running costs are making their businesses unprofitable, an agriculture industry association has warned.
The British Free Range Egg Producers Association (BFREPA) said many of its members are losing money due to high chicken feed prices and energy costs.
Farmers have demanded a 40p increase for a dozen eggs to help cover costs.
But supermarkets said they were “limited” on how much cost they could pass on to customers.
Farmers claim that despite the price of a dozen eggs rising in supermarkets by around 45p since March, they have only received between 5p and 10p of that increase.
Ioan Humphreys, an egg farmer from Powys in Wales said in a social media video that supermarkets “refused” to pay farmers a “fair price” for their produce at a time when the cost of feed, electricity and the price of new birds had “skyrocketed”.
“We cannot physically afford to produce these eggs. Currently, eight million fewer free-range chickens have been ordered for next year’s flocks,” he said.
“So that’s almost eight million eggs every day that we’re not going to produce. We are already short of three million eggs to support ourselves [as a country].”
Like households, farmers have also been affected by sharply rising energy costs in recent months.
They’ve also had to pay more for wheat, a key ingredient in chicken feed, which has surged as a result of the Ukraine war, with both Russia and Ukraine producing about 30% of the world’s supply.
Along with rising costs, farmers have been hit by the country’s largest bird flu outbreak, which has resulted in millions of birds being killed or culled in the past 12 months.
All poultry and captive birds in England must be kept indoors under government guidelines, which means eggs in shops are labeled as ‘barn eggs’ as the birds are kept indoors for more than 16 weeks.
Farmers have previously warned the UK could face an egg shortage if retailers don’t start paying more.
However, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said there was “no shortage of eggs at this time”.
“We understand the difficulties that the avian flu outbreak is causing for farmers, but the laying hen population is approximately 38 million so the overall supply is unlikely to be affected,” it said in a statement.
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BFREPA said a survey of 157 of its members last week found that 33% had either reduced or halted egg farm production in some way.
Ben Pike, a spokesman for the trade organization, said bird flu was a “contributing factor” to egg farmers’ woes, but added price pressure was “probably a bigger factor at the moment.”
Kevin Coles, of the British Egg Industry Council, said he believed there were problems around egg availability, but added it was not a “crisis”.
“Right now farmers are under a lot of pressure, bird flu is one, costs another and demand remains strong – consumers want to buy eggs,” he added.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents supermarkets, said bird flu has caused some disruptions to egg supplies but additional retailers are trying to minimize the impact on customers.
“Retailers have long-established relationships with their suppliers and understand how important it is for their customers and businesses to maintain them,” said Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the BRC.
“Supermarkets source the vast majority of their groceries from the UK and know they have a sustainable price to pay to egg farmers, but are constrained by the level of additional costs they can pass on to consumers during a livelihood crisis.”
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