The Economist explains | The Economist eggsplains

Why free-range eggs are cracking the British market

Customers are willing to shell out more for animal welfare

By C.W.

SINCE 2006 British hens have laid roughly 100bn eggs, enough for about 150 per person, per year. Most of the eggs came from caged hens, which for most of that period were boxed up in tiny “battery cages”. Now, however, Britain produces about as many free-range eggs as caged ones. For those concerned about animal welfare, it is cracking news. Why are free-range eggs moving up the pecking order?

The law has something to do with it. Thanks to a plan hatched by the European Union, from 2012 the smallest battery cages were banned. From that point on, egg producers were required to provide hens with larger, more comfortable cages, including areas where they can nest and scratch. Government ministers solemnly claimed that the British “egg industry alone has spent £400m ($505m) ensuring hens live in better conditions”. Not all farmers have been so forward-thinking, however; some rotten eggs continued to cock a snook at the rules and treat chickens reprehensibly. Feathers were ruffled when footage secretly obtained by Animal Aid, a campaign group, in Lincolnshire in 2013 showed caged chickens barely able to move.

On the sunny side, consumers’ changing tastes may do more than Eurocrats ever could. The latest edition of the government’s closely watched “quarterly egg statistics” suggests that in the third quarter of this year farms produced about as many free-range eggs as caged-hen ones (see chart). Pressure from groups like Animal Aid makes British consumers uneasy about buying their eggs from disreputable producers. These days, retailers crow about their pro-chicken credentials. Marks & Spencer, an upmarket chain, does not want to whisk bad publicity: it has a “100% free-range egg policy”, comprising both whole eggs and those used in prepared products. In recent months other supermarkets have scrambled to tighten their anti-cage policies, with most hoping to phase them out altogether within a few years.

The future also looks bright. Egg prices have fallen in recent years, but free-range eggs have become more expensive relative to other sorts. This gives farmers an incentive to produce more of them at the expense of the caged variety. However, British consumers have a limit to their concern for chicken welfare. Sales of organic eggs, for which customers shell out over twice as much as for caged-hen ones, have come off the boil in recent years.

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