People in Wales have been noticing that eggs seem to be in short supply once more - but not everywhere. One Cardiff woman told WalesOnline there were "egg shortages all over the place again" adding: "I tried to buy them at Asda in Leckwith and Tesco on Western Avenue yesterday, all out. This morning, tried Tesco Extra on Cowbridge Road, who also didn’t have them. I then went back to Asda in Leckwith and they had a few boxes left, but will definitely be out soon."
Pictures from supermarkets around the Welsh capital show empty shelves in many, but not all outlets:
Why are there not enough eggs?
It is complicated and there are many factors at play. Ultimately, it comes down to supply issues but the reasons for those supply issues are quite varied. Avian flu has had an input but posting on Instagram in November, well known Welsh farmer Ioan Humphreys said: "There are not many eggs on the shelf to buy, not free range, not organic, nothing. So you struggling to find eggs. Supermarkets are going to tell you this is because of avian flu. Which to be fair, there has been a lot of cases of avian flu."
However, he added: "But you want to know the real reason why there's an egg shortage? It is because the supermarkets won't pay the farmers for the eggs. So the supermarkets have upped their price for you, the consumer. But they haven't filtered that price increase down to us, the farmers. So our cost of producing these eggs has skyrocketed, feed, electric, the price of new birds, they have gone up. But our price of eggs has stayed the same. So we physically can't afford to produce these eggs."
He said there had been 8 million less free range hens ordered for next year's flocks. "That's just under 8 million eggs every day that we're not going to be producing and we're already 3 million eggs short of being self sufficient. This means that the UK has to import 3 million eggs every day to feed the nation and now we're losing another 8 million birds because the supermarkets won't pay us.
"They're going to blame the farmers. We can't afford to produce it. If the supermarkets paid us a fair price for our eggs, then we would stock our sheds, and there'll be more sheds going up and the UK could be self sufficient in great British eggs. But the supermarkets won't pay us."
Famers’ concerns were put to the British Retail Consortium at the end of May by inews. Andrew Opie, director of food & sustainability, responded: “Retailers have long-standing, established relationships with their suppliers and know how important maintaining these are for their customers and businesses. Supermarkets source the vast majority of their food from the UK and know they need to pay a sustainable price to egg farmers, however, they are also facing additional costs and are working incredibly hard to limit price increases for consumers during a cost-of-living crisis where many people are struggling to afford the essentials.”
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