September 9, 2013

Frenchfarmers destroy eggs on price protest

In front of a tax office in Brittany, over 100,000 eggs have been smashed by French egg farmers in protest over low prices.

A group of 20 farmers has threatened to smash 100,000 a day, about 5% of Brittany's daily production, until prices improve.

In order to bring the market into balance, the farmers are calling on the government for a cut to national French egg production by 5%.

From the back of a truck, eggs were pushed and dumped on the pavement outside a local tax office in Carhaix, Brittany by angry producers and said that the eggs had no place on French soil, and the surplus should instead be shipped to developing countries.

Yves-Marie Beaudet, head of the egg section of a union that represents farmers in Brittany, said that producers were being paid €0.75 (US$1) for a kilogramme of eggs that cost €0.95 (US$1.25).

These are the latest in a series of protests from French egg farmers who say investing in enriched cages has hit bottom lines hard, and the cost of raw feed materials is rising faster than the market price of eggs.