By Nick Allen, chief executive, British Egg Industry Council
In November I had the honour to give my first ever presentation as Chief Executive of the British Egg Industry Council, at the 2025 BFREPA Live, Free Range Egg Show.
The presentation I gave was titled ‘The Power of the British Lion Eggs: Securing the future of the British egg industry”, I chose this given the rise in year on year egg sales – a 5.1% increase in volume according to data from Kantar. I felt it was important to reflect on the success of the British Lion and its Code of Practice, our key achievements and to look to the future of arguably one of the world’s most successful food assurance schemes. As I acknowledged in last month’s column, the success of the British Lion assurance scheme reflects the hard work, and dedication of all those involved across the egg sector since the launch of the Code of Practice in 1998.
In 2024 egg consumption hit 13.6bn. This is the highest since 1998.At the time of the launch of the Code of Practice 7 we had consumers worried about health, particularly vulnerable groups, , consumption was falling among key consumers and a rise of convenience foods that were perceived by many to be more exciting. This was all combined with a lack of any real promotional campaigning and advertising. The BEIC, through the Lion, overcame and rehabilitated eggs as a fast, convenient, versatile and importantly cost-effective ‘super food’ in terms of health benefits and nutrition.
Today, much of the country has no memory of the considerable challenge we had to overcome. This is why the industry continues to invest in promoting the Lion – over £50m since 1998, that has helped our sector to overcome the post-COVID decline in sales in 2021-22, with long-term marketing investment targeting the millennial audience as a key driver for growth.
The BEIC will continually raise standards through refining the Lion Code of Practice and build on the British Lion Training passport, which helps us to champion our industry not just at home, but around the world.
Looking at the picture through a global perspective, brings me on to the issue of imports, particularly from Ukraine. The BEIC is resolute in it’s position that we agree that UK should help Ukraine in it’s awful plight with the Russian invasion and it’s war, but not at the expense of British farmers and those in our industry who have worked so hard to create the one of the most thriving sectors of British food and farming that we see today.
We understand that the decision on whether to extend tariff free access to the UK market for Ukrainian eggs and egg products will be made by the Prime Minister shortly. We have written to both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor along with the RSPCA, CIWF and API, to express our joint concerns. We have made it clear that it would be a betrayal of the UK’s high standards of animal welfare to continue to allow imports from systems of production that are illegal here and across the EU. Ukraine’s laying hen sector is primarily made up of caged systems that do not comply with enhanced colony cage standards. Not only are there animal welfare concerns, but we also have food safety concerns. A number of high-profile food safety experts have joined the BEIC in highlighting these worries in further correspondence with the government.
Moving onto biosecurity, the industry is facing the growing threat of Avian Influenza (AI), which has been exacerbated by wet weather across the UK. We are pleased the Welsh Government as of 13th November implemented compulsory housing measures. Mandatory housing will also apply to flocks of less than 50 birds of any species if eggs or poultry products are sold or given away, due to the increased risk of disease transmission associated with trading or giving away poultry products. Scotland has not yet implemented a mandatory housing order and remains an Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ). We understand the Scottish Government are keeping the situation under review and have joined with leading industry groups to urge them to act by implementing a mandatory housing order.
We strongly recommend that all sites review and reinforce their biosecurity arrangements, as robust biosecurity remains the most effective defence against Avian Influenza on farm.