By Mark Williams, chair, British Egg Industry Council
At the time of writing, the news of yet further cases of Avian Influenza only serves to act as a stark warning that this disease has not gone away. After the two torrid AI seasons of 2021-22 and 2022-23, that we only saw 6 cases in total during the 2023-24 season led many to think the H5N1 HPAI virus was starting to wane. This AI season we currently stand at 23 cases with still a few months of high risk to go. As we all know, Biosecurity … Biosecurity … Biosecurity… is vital.
In response to the current AI situation, we have temporarily moved Lion Code auditing by NSF to remote livestreaming on sites where there are live birds. This will use WhatsApp.
Last month I touched on the Government’s egg supply chain fairness review. We continue to engage with officials at Defra to ensure that these regulations meet the needs of our industry and are not a ‘copy and paste’ from those in the dairy sector. We will be taking part in a stakeholder engagement event with others to represent the British egg industry to ensure this happens.
Almost all British supermarket retailers have come out in support of family farms that will be severely impacted by the UK Government’s changes to Agricultural Relief, particularly Inheritance Tax (IHT) and Agricultural Property Relief (APR). The BEIC shares the concerns of all the farming organisations across the UK.
Moving onto international trade, we are starting to see more activity around international trade agreements. President Trump has now settled into a second term in office and appears to have already made several big decisions, including the possibility he could seek to restart trade talks with the UK. The US is the 2nd largest economy in the world, with an agricultural sector worth over $1.5 trillion in GDP so definitely one to watch. The Government is also moving forward on negotiations with countries such as Turkey, Switzerland, and India over the coming months.
The BEIC asked that the UK Government: prohibits the import of eggs and egg products that are produced by hens housed in systems of production that are illegal in the UK; recognises in future trade deals, such as with India, our higher costs of production due to UK legislation on food safety, animal welfare and the environment, and treats both eggs and egg products as sensitive, meaning that import tariffs remain in place; and applies appropriate safeguard measures, that will react in a timely fashion should the evidence demonstrate that the UK egg market is being adversely affected.