10.12.2009

Half of the hens currently in conventional cages in European Union states will fail to make the switch to enriched cages by the January 2012 deadline.
New EU rules banning the production of eggs in conventional cages come into force on January 1 2012. Both the EU and the UK Government are currently insisting that the ban will go ahead as planned, but Mark Williams, chief executive of the British Egg Industry Council, believes that huge numbers of producers in other countries will fail to meet the deadline, raising serious questions about how the EU will react.
As many as 244 million hens were still in conventional cages across the EU in 2008. They accounted for 63 per cent of EU egg production. The EU figures put free range production at 66 million hens. In comparison, 47 per cent of layers in the UK in 2008 were in conventional cages, eight per cent were in enriched cages and 37 per cent were free range. The forecast is that by 2012 the cage sector will have shrunk to 43 per cent of the market in the UK and free range will account for 50 per cent of the market.