Barn eggs will play a big part in German market

Following the opening of Newquip’s new offices we had the opportunity to find out what was happening in the German egg market.

Bernd Meerpohl, chairman of Big Dutchman AG, told the Ranger that in 2008 the retail market was split 5.7% organic, 19.3% free range, 25% barn, 31% cage, 5% cooked /coloured eggs and 14% non identified eggs.

The German Government has brought forward changes in EU legislation and this meant there was now a rapid transition taking place in the market. Cage producers he said were converting to enriched colonies or barn systems with some converting to free range.

However the change was made difficult for those wishing to go down the enriched route as the German standards for the enriched colony were higher than those for the rest of the EU.

Conversion from standard cage to enriched colony meant that stock numbers would be cut by around 50%. In addition it was difficult for some producers to switch to free range due to the lack of range area on many units. He predicted that the market would change to alternative systems perhaps providing 60% of the eggs with the rest from enriched colonies although this was to a large extent dependent on the response of retailers to marketing eggs from enriched colonies.

What was clear was that barn eggs would play a significant role in the development of the German egg market as they were already well accepted by the German public.

The Ranger is to publish a special editorial on the German markets move to cage free by the end of 2009 in a future edition.