Farming leaders have raised concerns about the threat of low standard, cheap imports of egg products in any potential post-Brexit trade deals.
The fears were raised during a meeting called by the National Farmers Union (NFU) to discuss the possible impact of Brexit on the poultry sector.
People from both the egg industry and the poultry meat industry voiced concerns that their industry could be sacrificed by politicians in future trade negotiations.
Mark Williams, chief executive of the British Egg Industry Council (BEIC), said the UK would be unable to compete with cheaper, lower standard egg products from other parts of the world if they were give free access to the British market.
NFU director general Terry Jones said it was important that the industry continued to have access to foreign labour.
EU migrants account for 40 per cent of total farm labour in the egg sector and 60 per cent of total labour in packing centres.
Poultry producers are reliant on non-UK staff throughout their businesses, whether it is in the office, hands on work, or to helping getting turkeys ready for Christmas.
They also say they are concerned of the knock-on effects with processing plants – which also use many non-UK workers.
FarmingUK was at the NFU meeting at Stoneleigh.
