January 12, 2011

UK poultry farmers are getting ready for crisis talks with the European Commission (EC) over new laws on the keeping of battery hens.

As a result of an EU directive, the keeping of battery hens in cramped pens will be outlawed next year. This has prompted fears among UK poultry farmers that other EU member states such as Poland, Bulgaria, and Spain will continue to produce cheaper eggs from hens in conventional pens. The provision of the new-style henhouses is a big investment for Britain's egg-producers which will result in an increase in domestic egg prices.

The EU's Welfare of Laying Hens Directive, will, UK farmers fear, result in an "un-level playing field" where manufacturers and supermarkets will buy cheaper eggs from member states who are not yet ready to comply with the new regulations. The 14 million battery hens in the UK became a cause for celebration for animal welfare activists and top chef Jamie Oliver, with the campaigns launched being a spur for the new rules.

British egg-producers are on course for the 2012 deadline with the new "enriched colony system pens", but fear less-committed member states will flood the market with hundreds of millions of more cheaply-produced eggs. The National Farmers' Union believes even a few-pence increase in the cost of half-a-dozen eggs will put their members at a strong disadvantage as retailers and manufacturers source cheaper eggs from non-compliant states.

The number of laying hens in the UK is expected to decrease by at least 15% due to the spatial requirements of the new pens, which are 50% larger than the present housings. Farmers' representatives are urging the UK government to ban the import of eggs produced in non-compliant countries in order to save many of the industry's 23,000 jobs.