Bill Carmichael: Our farmers shell out for EU egg regulations

IF you want to know how the European Union works, you need look no further than the food on your plate – particularly if you enjoy a couple of fried eggs on toast.

This weekend the European egg industry undergoes a momentous change in the methods of production, but as is common with the EU, it is the good guys who have played by the rules who are punished, while the subsidy junkies and regulation dodgers are given huge, unfair advantages.

It all began back in 1999 when, under pressure from animal rights activists, the EU enacted something called the Welfare of Laying Hens Directive, which effectively banned battery cages.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Egg producers were given 12 years – to this Sunday, January 1, 2012 – to tear down their battery cages. From this date all caged hens used in egg production within the EU must be housed in “enriched” cages with more space (at least 750 cm2 compared with 550 cm2 in the old battery system), more height, a nest, perching space and litter to allow pecking and scratching.

Nothing wrong with that of course, although it is worth pointing out that British farmers have always been in the forefront of advances in animal welfare.

But as is invariably the case, British officials didn’t just adopt the new regulations – they dipped them in gold and encrusted them with diamonds and applied them with all the ruthlessness of the bureaucratic zealot with no experience of the real world.

The assembled clipboard men of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) descended on Britain’s hapless egg producers demanding every jot and tittle of the regulations be obeyed to the letter.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Egg farmers were bullied and warned in no uncertain terms that the sale of battery eggs would be illegal throughout the EU from next January. As a result, British egg producers have invested an astonishing £400m on phasing out the old battery cages. Amazingly, 100 per cent of British producers will be fully compliant with the new regulations as from this Sunday, according to the British Egg Industry Council (BEIC).

And in Europe? Well, what do you think? Thirteen EU countries, including Spain, Italy and Poland, ignored the ban. It is estimated that more than a third of EU caged egg production breaks the new rules and that 84 million hens will be kept in “illegal” battery cages in 2012.

They will now be able to use their competitive advantage to flood the British market with illegally produced, but far cheaper eggs, threatening the future of British producers and thousands of jobs.

Attentive readers will recall we have been here before. In 1999, British pig producers adopted new welfare rules, only to see their businesses undermined by cheap pork produced to poor standards imported from across the EU.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

And what will the EU or the British government do about this scandal? Not a fat lot is the answer. In its entire history, Defra has never been known to stand up for British consumers and producers, and this is just the latest example.

Earlier this month Agriculture Minister Jim Paice rejected calls for an import ban on illegally produced eggs, saying that instead he hoped the UK food industry would reach a “voluntary consensus” not to use battery eggs.

Mr Paice and his officials clearly haven’t the faintest idea of how industry works. Manufacturers are simply not going to “voluntarily” opt for a more expensive product.

There are a few things you can do. Only buy British eggs and insist that any cakes, mayonnaise, quiches etc that you buy only contain home produced eggs too.

Britain’s egg farmers deserve your support.

Related topics: