April 2, 2012
Europe to expect Easter egg quandary
This year, the egg industry has been hit by the EU's new requirements for bigger, animal-friendly cages for hens, a change which have affected production and, combined with high feed cost, boosted consumer prices.
Ahead of Easter Sunday, depending on the religious denomination, it makes for a costly tradition on a continent where millions have grown up painting or dyeing eggs as children and are now facing economic crisis.
At Warsaw's Hala Mirowska market, the egg sales of Jacek Bechcicki are down as he faces customers grumbling about high prices.
"The holiday will be poorer for some of my customers," Mr. Bechcicki said.
Pekka Pesonen used to color and dye eggs as a kid in his native Finland. As a rite of spring, "it was a celebration of new life," he remembers.
Now, Mr. Pesonen is secretary-general of a major European farm federation and is seeing how the new EU legislation has put a damper on this Easter season.
"Obviously, it has had an impact," he said.
The European Egg Processors Association says that EU-wide production of eggs since the Jan. 1 legislative change has dropped by 10% to 15%, or about 200 million eggs a week.
Prices have sometimes tripled on international markets over the past month, peaking at more than US$2.60 per 2.2 pounds, said Philip Van Bosstraeten of Ovobel, an international company that makes equipment for egg processing.
Mr. Van Bosstraeten was speaking from Venice, Italy, where he was attending a conference of the International Egg Commission and said the place was abuzz with talk of the egg crisis.
"All you hear is deals being sealed for imports from outside of Europe," he said in a telephone interview.
There is concern of a doubling in price in some EU nations and supermarkets. The European Commission said that overall the price for table eggs in early March was 55% higher compared with the previous year and officials said the increase has somewhat tapered off in past days.
Price differences across the EU are big though.
