17 March 2015 | Poultry | 2201 views

SEPRA Market Report - 13th March 2015

The market is more than a bit frantic, although there is a no change situation it is because there isn’t much in the way of eggs to change hands, there are some Polish eggs available in Scotland whether they are, or have slipped over the Border from Ukraine is debatable, Lion Code are simply not available.
The impression is some of the big players are playing games, its hide and seek just now, if you have eggs you are hiding the fact and trying to get a bit more market share, if you are short of eggs they seek them here they seek them there and on that point we have heard of some pretty crazy prices being offered to big Free Range producers in England (£1.15 to £1.20 flat rate per dozen).
 
Let’s hope this doesn’t turn into blind man’s bluff, the big supermarkets have been hacking down retail prices in competition with one another in their attempt to maintain their market share, this has increased egg sales fairly dramatically, hence the shortage of eggs, but they have taken the bulk of the hit in price.
 
But it looks like there is going to be a fairly big increase in Free Range egg production mostly from new production particularly in England starting May ish, the big supermarkets have their own market intelligence and are very aware that supplies are tight, but if they get a hint of increased production will they be saying, we have taken the hit for 6 months, it’s your turn get the prices down and we will be back to a completely unsustainable situation, (blind man’s bluff).
 
Avian Influenza, that is a new outbreak confirmed today in Holland, with spring coming in, our wetland birds are thinking of heading North for the summer which will be a relief as science tells us that they and man are the biggest risk for AI, but as spring comes in we will be having the new migratory birds from warmer climes, plus tourists, so Bio Security is still very very important.
 
We have put the piece in from India as in this ever shrinking world we have witnessed dried egg in a bakery in Scotland from India, there is no dried egg manufacturing in Britain and it is only the import tariffs that are protecting the EU product industry, our representative organisations are fighting for special protective status of the EU egg industry because of the higher production costs linked to our higher welfare standards, if this fails the EU will be awash with product from other continents.
 
This is highlighted in the piece from Russia, in the Russian Spanish deal for turkey production showing that production will follow the cheap grain, labour and lack of regulations.
 
Quality and local image are going to be ever more important.