AS the egg trade moves into a traditionally slower time of year, the market is now beset by a double dose of challenges.
On one hand the colony market in the UK continues to be disrupted by the arrival of large volumes of Ukrainian cage eggs; while on the other, the free range trade has suffered a downturn in demand.
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As the heatwave rolls on and with the school holiday about to start, retail sales of eggs have slowed considerably, and significant volumes are searching for an alternative home.
“There’s lots of egg around, it’s a disastrous summer market,” explained Andy Crossland at Central Egg Agency.
“The weather’s hot, the retails are down, there’s a lot of imports around, it’s the perfect storm really. You’ve got the world cup on at the minute as well, and it tends to be a beer and burger market,” he suggested.
Wholesale
Wholesale prices were down across the board at CEA, with colony eggs down 40p on the two main sizes, and free range down 45p .
“We’ve got a lot of free range offered on the board, both graded and ungraded. The processors are getting pretty full, while it’s the wrong type of egg for the wholesale market, and that’s overdone with imports at the moment.”
One of the traditional escape routes for surplus free-range, in the form of ‘cascading’ down into the cage market at a lower price, was also effectively closed off.
“With the prices being so high, the drop down to a Ukraine import price is a long way to fall.”
Flock declined
The pressures have come during the summer despite a significant decline in the size of the laying flock. Between March and June, estimates based on day-old pullet placings indicate that the UK laying flock is likely to have shrunk by about a million birds in lay.
However, it is almost certain that this reduction has been focused on the colony sector rather than free range production.
The latest placings figures now suggest that during the summer, and then up to and including October, the UK flock should remain at about this level with some minor monthly fluctuations.
