VOL. 19, NO. 1 / WINTER 2024 / URNER BARRY'S REPORTER • 45
decisions. These include price, size, origin
and housing type. Across the Atlantic in the
U.S., as part of the Proposition 12 initiatives,
around half of the states are prioritizing
the same cage-free objective. In October
2023, 126 million hens out of a total 322
million in the whole of the U.S. are housed
cage-free, which is 39.2% of the U.S. flock.
So, while there is clear evidence to support
the shift to cage-free, it appears the road
may be long and difficult until such eggs
are completely banned from our plates.
Article contributed by
Fabienne O'Donoghue
fodonoghue@urnerbarry.com
Also, on the supply side, farmers in 2022
had to deal with the "perfect storm," which
combined to impact production costs and
volumes. These included severe avian
influenza outbreaks and soaring energy
and feed costs. This critical sequence of
events drove many EU egg producers
to delay the required building works and
equipment transformations to necessitate
the shift from cage to cage-free operations,
as they were running out of funds.
Finally, it is worth noting that the EU
code that reveals the housing type on
eggs (3 for cage, 2 for barn, 1 for freerange and 0 for organic) is only applied
on table eggs but not on processed egg
products. Consumers cannot identify the
type of egg used in liquid and dried eggs
unless the producer adds it voluntarily
on the packaging. The list of ingredients
included in products prepared by food
manufacturers, bakeries, and foodservice
usually does not show this information.
As cage remains the most profitable
production type-with cheaper prices for
end users-this leaves space for a cage
egg market dedicated to eggs for breaking.
In general, the cage-free trend is slowly
spreading around the world, from Paris
and New York to Hong Kong or Wellington.
However, there are a myriad of elements
that comprise people's purchasing
"One of the major
factors delaying the
transition to cagefree is the cost of
living, specifically
the costs incurred in
grocery shopping."