The arrival of autumn has failed to bring any relief to a struggling egg market.
The traditional September bounce, when the school holidays end and people go back to work, has been noticeably missing this year.
See also: Ep 55 | Barry Jackson: Why the UK egg market has softened – and what comes next
It follows a troubled summer for the trade, when imported eggs undermined the wholesale trade and hot weather suppressed retail demand.
The expected autumn pick-up “doesn’t seem to have happened this time around”, said CEA’s Andy Crossland.
“There’s plenty of birds still in lay, and we are probably overproducing a little for this moment in time. The retails haven’t really bounced back, the wholesale market is slow, and the processors are full up with egg as well, so it is difficult to place the surplus at the moment.”
‘Very slow’
“We are normally flying by now, but it’s very, very slow. Lots of people are trying to sell egg at the moment. Most packers are offering free-range.”
“I don’t think the media coverage on the Salmonella scare has helped egg sales,” he continued. “Hopefully, as the story dies away and we move on, egg sales will pick up again,” said Mr Crossland.
The latest figures for the numbers of pullet chicks placed on farms indicate that the UK laying flock is now at its low point for the second half of the year, before it begins rising again.
Pullet chicks
During the first four months of the year, pullet chicks had been down by 230,000 overall, compared with the same period of 2025.
Since then, day old chick placings have been booming during the summer months, recording year-on-year increases of 11% in May, 8.7% in July and 9.5% in August.
As a result, the number of laying birds up to 17 months of age looks set to rise by 720,000 by the end of November, before levelling off into the New Year.
