Bird Flu, Inflation, and Low Retail Prices Hit British Egg Producers Amid Shortage Fears

Eggs are seen for sale at the new Tarleton Aldi store in Tarleton, United Kingdom, on July 22, 2022. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Britain’s farmers are struggling to meet the demand for eggs as production is hit by avian flu and skyrocketing costs, low prices, and suppliers threatening to leave the industry.

Measures to keep all poultry and captive birds indoors in England to prevent the spread of bird flu came into force on Monday.

The government said that the UK is facing its largest-ever outbreak of bird flu with over 200 cases confirmed across the country since late October 2021. All poultry and captive birds must be housed in England until further notice, following an increase in the numbers of avian influenza in wild birds and on commercial premises.

However, despite acknowledging bird flu, poultry farmers claim that combined, the issues they face go further, citing energy costs and retailers buying their produce at low prices, which is now tightening the supply of eggs.

Tighter Supply

Ben Pike, spokesman for the British Free Range Egg Producers Association (BFREPA), told The Epoch Times the egg supply is becoming “much tighter.”

“You can’t ignore the fact that bird flu has affected both free-range farms and colony farms [birds that don’t go outside],” he said.

Though egg producers are also currently at breaking point because of soaring costs of production. In May, the association called for the UK’s major retailers to immediately increase the price of a dozen eggs in their shops by 40 pence to save businesses from collapse.

Lohman Tradition Hens are pictured at Oakwood Farm in Selkirk, Scotland, on Feb. 21, 2006. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

But now over a third of egg farmers are considering quitting the industry because they say it is no longer economically viable to farm hens.

Pike said that they had surveyed 157 producers over the weekend and that 33 percent of them said that they had “either reduced the number of hens that they had got on their farms or they have paused production completely, i.e. when their flock has depleted, they have just stopped production and not ordered a new flock.”

He added that the UK is about 92 percent self-sufficient at the moment and that retailers are buying from other countries.

“Everybody in Europe is being affected by bird flu at the same time, so eggs are not readily available from all over the world. Retailers are probably looking for anywhere they can get it,” he said.

‘I Don’t Think This Has Ever Happened Before’

Full-time fourth-generation farmer Ioan Humphreys told The Epoch Times that avian flu is serious but he saw it being used as a “scapegoat.”

Humphreys, who has a farm in Wales with 32,000 free-range hens, recently posted a video to Twitter where he argued that “avian flu is not the main reason we’re in an egg shortage. Supermarkets doing as they please again.”

“We are fully aware and we have lost a lot of hens but that is not the biggest contributing factor to the shortage of eggs,” he said.

Humphreys said that the supermarkets are not paying the farmers for the eggs despite upping the price for the consumer. The price increase is not reaching farmers even though costs for producing feed, electricity, and the price of new birds have gone up.

“There have been 8 million fewer birds for the next production cycle, just under less than 8 million eggs per day, that are not going to be producing British eggs,” he said.

“I don’t think this has ever happened before; farmers leaving their sheds empty. They are not just putting hens in the sheds,” he added.

Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the UK trade association British Retail Consortium, told The Epoch Times by email, “While avian flu has disrupted the supply of some egg ranges, retailers are experts at managing supply chains and are working hard to minimise impact on customers.”

“Furthermore, retailers have long-standing, established relationships with their suppliers and know how important maintaining these are for their customers and businesses. Supermarkets source the vast majority of their food from the UK and know they need to pay a sustainable price to egg farmers but are constrained by how much additional cost they can pass onto consumers during a cost-of-living crisis,” he added.

PA Media contributed to this report.