Australia’s love affair with eggs causes headaches as farmers push to expand

There are more than 20 million chickens in Australia’s national egg-laying stock but farmers say they are struggling to keep up with the nation’s appetite.

Australians consume an average of 18 million eggs each day but due to a combination of factors suppliers are struggling to keep supermarket shelves stocked.

Egg farmer Colin Ford, who produces about 125,000 eggs a week from his property in southern Western Australia, said he wanted to boost that by another 56,000.

Bird flu, floods, fires and other challenges have squeezed supply chains on the east coast and with WA importing a quarter of its eggs from the east, it has left shoppers empty handed.

“What they’ve realised is that to get that consistency of supply and quality they need to buy local, so we’ve definitely seen an uptake in demand for our eggs,” Mr Ford said.

Shortage to continue

Mr Ford said the decline in eastern egg production had huge ramifications on the supply chain across the country.

“They’ve had disruptions with disease,” Mr Ford said.

He said that could mean up to 500,000 birds were taken out of the system.

“I think customers realise that they can’t rely on cheaper eastern states eggs coming in with disruptions to transport and production across there,” he said.

Commercial Egg Producers Association of WA president Ian Wilson said he could not see the national shortage coming to an end in the near future.

“You can’t double your production overnight,” he said.

“It’s something where you slowly build a new shed, stock it, borrow the money, pay the money back and all the rest of it from the bank.

“Therefore we’d probably see shelves maybe a little bit bare for the foreseeable future.”

Australians consumed 6.6 billion eggs last financial year, according to Australian Eggs.

Phase out pushes up prices

Egg prices have jumped in some supermarkets this year.

Normally a reliable and affordable source of protein, and much-loved staple in the weekly shop, they have doubled in price from about $4 a dozen for caged eggs to $8 — or up to $9 a dozen for free-range.

Woolworths and Coles have said their egg ranges would be cage-free by 2025, in a plan to end the practice of keeping poultry in battery cages.

“The review of standards and guidelines has been underway for about seven years,” Mr Wilson said.

“So, in that time, many farmers were reluctant to do more infrastructure on their farms e.g. cages, with that uncertainty hanging over their head.”