Chick placings down but egg sets up

Commercial layer chick placings in the United Kingdom are down for the second month running, following a series of large increases earlier in the year.

Figures just released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) show that the number of layer chicks placed in June fell by five per cent compared with the same month last year. The number of chicks placed in June was 2.9 million. In June 2011 the number was 3.1 million. The June figure follows an identical percentage fall in May this year. The number of chicks placed in that month was 2.6 million, compared with 2.7 million in May 2011.

The recent falls have resulted in the moving total falling back slightly, according to the latest statistical release. It now stands at 33 million - down from a peak of 33.3 million in April, which was the result of large monthly increases in chick placings of 12 per cent in February, 15 per cent in March and 31 per cent in April.

John Retson, chairman of the British Free Range Egg Producers' Association (BFREPA) says that bird numbers need to fall a great deal more to ease the crisis in the free range egg sector. "These falls are nothing like enough," said John. "We need to see much bigger reductions than this to get us out of this mess, particularly when you see the worrying increase in eggs set in June."

The latest statistics show that the number of layer eggs set in June increased by nine per cent compared with the same month last year - up to 8.2 million from 7.5 million in June last year.

This followed a year-on-year fall of nine per cent in May, after a series of increases in February, March and April.

The moving total is now up to 94.5 million - nearly back to the peak of 94.6 million in April.

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