Free range does not escape price drop

Picture caption. Retail sales of all eggs are down

At least one packer has dropped its free range producer price in the face of an over-supplied egg market.

Although David Tromans, managing director of Deans Foods, admitted that the most severe problems were being experienced in the cage and barn sector, he described free range supplies as being “readily available”. And while Christmas brought some respite in the shape of improved demand, even these sales were disappointing compared with previous years, said Mr Tromans.

“Most retailers were down on forecast and it would appear this was the general picture across the whole food sector. This has had a knock-on effect and we have seen the demand for processed egg fall away too.”

The cage sector is paying the price for rapid expansion—particularly in Europe but also in the UK—on the back of record prices eighteen months ago, while the barn egg market was dealt a blow last year with the Morrisons takeover of Safeway. Barn eggs formed a significant slice of Safeway’s egg sales but do not figure too highly in Morrisons’ future plans.


Free range sales have slowed too, leaving packers reviewing producer prices, and Deans has reduced its price to suppliers by one pence a dozen. But there is still optimism surrounding the long-term prospects for the sector.

“We are seeing a slow but steady growth in free range while cage egg sales are declining,“ said Mr Tromans, who defended his company’s recent recruitment drive.

“It takes around two years to get extra supplies on-stream,” he said, “but we can’t get it exactly right every time. There is bound to be the odd glitch here or there but we are confident that the trend is right.”

Also reporting an over-supplied market is Nick Rogers of Stonegate, but he does not believe free range is any less affected than other sectors.

“There are too many eggs of all types about,” said the commercial director, “and I don’t anticipate any improvement in the market between now and Easter.

“We don’t have any immediate plans to reduce producer prices but they will have to be kept under review.”

Mr Rogers said the next few weeks trading would be crucial with regards to any decision on prices.


BFREPA chairman Tom Vesey said he was naturally disappointed to hear news of an impending price cut.

“Following a period of reasonable returns we took the last price cut on the chin but we certainly didn’t want to see a further reduction,” said Tom.

“It is to be hoped that producer price levels are quickly restored because our members will not tolerate it if they believe free range is being used as a prop for an ailing cage market.”