February 25, 2010

Germany unable to meet local egg demand

The use of battery cages have been banned starting January 1 in Germany, leading to a shortfall in egg supply as 60% of the country's hens were farmed conventionally.

Consumers in Germany are eating more eggs and the new legislation meant that the country is unable to keep up with demand.

In 2009, the new rules regarding hen cages led to an egg production fall of two billion eggs. So far only Austria and Sweden have outlawed the use of small cages, and Germany's early compliance with the EU's 2012 cage ban law has caused the country to import eggs from other European nations that have not complied with the new requirements.

Last year, Germany imported a total of 4.9 billion eggs. Many of those eggs came from the Netherlands, where 44% of hens were reportedly kept in cages, a fact that was left out of product labels.