By Nick Allen, chief executive, British Egg Industry Council
The latest set of draft proposals from the Defra team looking at fair dealing proposals in the egg sector have recently been released. The BEIC continues to be disappointed with the scope of the review and the detail of some of the proposals.
The egg market has known some difficult periods, in recent memory the cost and shortage issues of 2022 and 2023 were challenging for all. This was exceptional times, with a combination of Brexit, the war in Ukraine, significant increases in feed prices, rising fuel prices and an unreliable global supply chain, affecting the whole UK economy. The supply chain fairness review was borne from these exceptional circumstances, a combination of events that it could be argued, are unlikely to ever be repeated.
As with most self-regulating markets, the market situation steadily corrected its course and what we have today is a buoyant UK egg sector, with 52 week volume growth recorded by Kantar as up by 4.5% and good returns for producers. Your assurance scheme, the Lion Code of Practice, reacted by reinforcing the requirement for contracts between producers and packers to be in place, containing clear termination provisions, which is now being followed. This change occurred significantly in advance of the government review and is now fully in place across the sector.
In the light of this, do we need government regulation to interfere in the commerciality of the egg sector in 2025? I would argue that it is now unnecessary and is likely to only have a detrimental impact on all involved.
It continues to be particularly disappointing that the scope of Defra’s fair dealing proposals are limited to purchases from primary producers, if any regulation is needed at all, then it should apply equally and fairly to all those within the supply chain and that includes retailers. We cannot have a situation where regulations diverge between the different stakeholders within the supply chain.
We fundamentally disagree with the proposed opt-out mechanism. While we accept that genuine farm gate sales — direct to consumers at the farm, in farm shops or at farmers markets — should be permitted outside of formal supply contracts, allowing broader exclusions risks undermining the integrity of the supply chain. The current wording could legitimise unregulated ‘white van’ sales, which raise serious concerns around food safety, traceability, and contract compliance. These informal sales not only jeopardise producer agreements but also create challenges for buyers trying to meet fixed-volume commitments with their own customers, particularly retailers. Any allowances for selling outside of contracts should be clearly defined and tightly controlled to avoid unintended consequences for the wider industry.
Turning to food security through the prism of international trade. We have been working with farm animal welfare organisations such as Animal Policy International, Compassion in World Farming and the RSPCA to bring our shared concerns regarding Ukrainian imports of eggs and egg products to the UK Government’s attention. We have written a joint letter to the newly appointed Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Peter Kyle MP to urge the UK Government to stick to its animal welfare commitments by not allowing imports produced by systems of production that are illegal not only in the UK but across the EU.
We understand that the majority of egg produced in Ukraine comes from caged systems of production, most of which are not compliant with the EU Welfare of Laying Hen Directive 1999/74/EC which has been part of UK legislation since 2012. Ukrainian imports are negatively impacting values in the market, outside of UK retail, which must be having an impact on farm margins, , particularly given that our sector is very sensitive to oversupply situations.
The British Egg Industry Council (BEIC) is not against supporting Ukraine and its people, however, that support cannot be made to the detriment of UK egg producers and undermine our high standards of animal welfare. We are deeply concerned that an extension of the FTA with Ukraine will have a significantly harmful impact on domestic egg production in the coming years.
Several MPs have recently questioned the use of enriched colony cages, but so far have failed to raise the issue of food products from prohibited systems of production coming onto our shelves or into our food service sector, particularly the highly sensitive egg products sector where consumers are completely unable to make any kind of informed decision based on animal welfare – this is not a free market, it’s an ‘opaque’ market and betrayal of our farmers who have the highest animal welfare standards in the world.
The UK-India CETA deal did not allow in imported eggs or products produced to lower standards, which should be the case with Ukraine and indeed any future FTAs that might be negotiated.
If it is illegal to produce here, then it should be illegal to import.