January 5, 2023

 

Rising input costs lead to more UK egg farmers quitting

Ged Futter, a former senior buying manager at Asda, has warned that the UK will be affected by a homegrown food shortage as more egg farmers quit due to rising costs, The Telegraph reported.

 

UK food prices are rising at 13.3% up in December 2022, from 12.4% in November, the fastest rate on record. Inflation in just fresh foods increased to 15% for the month from 14.3% in November, though inflation in all shop prices decreased slightly to 7.3%.

 

Farmers are under increasing pressure from supermarkets to maintain low prices for their customers.

 

Futter, currently a retail analyst, said farmers are under a lot of pressure and are actively leaving the industry if they can't get the prices they need.

 

He said there are farmers leaving the sector weekly, be it in eggs or other fresh produce, which is a major concern.

 

At the upcoming Oxford Farming Conference, the largest agricultural gathering in the UK, hundreds of British farmers will gather to talk about costs.

 

Mykola Solskyi, Ukraine's minister of food and agriculture, will be one of the speakers. The cost of essential farming supplies skyrocketed in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.

 

In recent months, many Britons have noticed an egg shortage on supermarket shelves. According to a November survey by the British Free Range Egg Producers Association, a third of farmers had reduced the number of hens in their flock because of prices, and a quarter had completely stopped production.

 

The UK National Farmers' Union warned that the country is sleepwalking into a food supply crises and urged the government to intervene over feed, fuel, and fertiliser prices.

 

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said many households in the UK had a difficult Christmas, as in addition to having to pay more for energy due to the cold snap, essential foods have also became more expensive as a result of the ongoing effects of the war in Ukraine on the price of energy, animal feed, and fertiliser.

 

-      The Telegraph