Page 11 - National Poultry Newspaper

Demand for cage free eggs contributes to egg shortage in New Zealand
RADIO New Zealand reported that Poultry Industry Association ex- ecutive director Michael Brooks said supply prob- lems were causing egg shortages nationally.
The number of lay- ing hens nationally has dropped from 4.2 million at the end of last year to 3.6 million.
“We’re just going to see a lesser amount of eggs, and that will probably translate to some extent to price increases, just because of a shortage of supply,” Mr Brooks said.
He said there were two main reasons for the drop. In 2012 new rules were introduced to gradually phase out battery cages for hens in New Zealand
by 2022.
This meant a series of
deadlines for farmers to incrementally give hens more space.
Poultry farmers faced significant costs to meet each stage of the new
regulations and some had reduced flock sizes as they made infrastructure changes.
“There are costs in terms of new land, new farming systems, and a lot of farmers have really got some big and very costly decisions to make – and that’s had an impact on supply, and that is part of the issue that’s leading to this supply issue at the moment,” he said.
Slow resource consent processes had also held up many developments and affected new-comers.
The other factor is de- mand is up as Kiwis are eating more eggs.
Mr Brooks thinks this is partly because nutrition- ists have swung back in favour of recommending eggs, and partly because of a swing away from car- bohydrate-rich and sugary breakfast cereals.
In 2009 New Zealanders ate about 200 eggs each a year, but now they get
through about 226 a year each.
“We produce one billion eggs a year,” Mr Brooks said.
“We’re big egg-eaters – it’s a cost-effective form of protein – and New Zea- landers like eggs.”
For now, Mr Brooks said the downward trend in the number of hens in the na- tional flock had already turned upwards and the flock had begun to grow again.
Hens take about five months to go from hatch- ing to producing their own eggs, and he estimates the egg supply should be back to normal in about six months.
But he expects the short- age could be repeated in coming years, as farmers are more vulnerable while they work towards the final 2022 tightening of cage rules, and this would produce more noticeable ebbs and flows in flock numbers and supply.
A spokesperson for New World and Pak’n Save stores said they had not noticed an egg shortage.
But Countdown’s head of perishables and deli foods Nikhil Sawant said their stores were reporting pressures on supplies of barn and free-range eggs.
“New Zealanders are increasingly interested in social and environmental issues and this is influenc- ing their purchasing,” Mr Sawant said.
“In the past three months we’ve seen a real surge in demand for barn and free range eggs.
“We’re working closely with our egg farmers as we all adjust to this in- creased demand, but there are unfortunately going to be shortages from time to time.
“We’re trying our best to keep shortages to a mini- mum and are expecting supply to improve in the coming few months.”
Wholesome cage free
egg distributors CEO Ian Higgins said cage free egg producers were noticing the strong demand but felt the overall egg short- age fell into the normal pattern of shortage and supply swings all food- producing farmers expe- rienced.
About 30 percent of eggs sold in New Zealand were cage free, and demand had been noticeably in- creasing for some time, Mr Higgins said.
“There’s some areas which are more pro-ani- mal welfare than others, like Wellington – where there’s always been a higher percentage of cage free eggs in supermarkets, and parts of Auckland and parts of Christchurch,” he said.
“Whereas some of the provincial towns are still more engaged with caged eggs.
“Although the Count- down stores are now pushing more and more
into cage free in provin- cial towns.”
As more farmers either moved to cage free poul- try farming or kept up with the changes to caging regulations, eggs would get dearer, he said.
“We cannot produce eggs for the same price – we can’t.”
Mr Higgins believed cage free was the right move ethically, and said regulations were the only way to make that happen.
But he also sympathises with farmers facing huge costs to make changes as
the regulations become tighter.
“It can’t be done over- night,” Mr Higgins said.
“Many farmers are go- ing as fast as they can to gear their farms up to produce more non-cage product.”
Some were choosing to wind businesses up, or re- tire, rather than finance the changes to meet the regulations, he said.
“But for us to not make those changes, we’re be- ing naïve and not keeping up with public demand.”
Eggs and poultry still on the menu, survey finds
MEAT, fish and eggs can be an important part of a healthy and environmentally re- sponsible diet, said consumers in new global research from Cargill.
And they plan to keep eating them too – along with plant-based dietary protein.
More than two-thirds of respondents said they intend to maintain or increase their consump- tion of animal protein in the next year.
Four-fifths of partici- pants expressed interest in plant-based or alter- native sources of pro- tein.
Cargill premix and nu- trition president Chuck Warta said, “We’re pleased consumers see animal protein as an im- portant part of a healthy diet.”
“Dietary guidance consistently emphasises the benefits of adequate protein intake from a variety of sources.
“Our aim is to help our livestock, poultry and aquaculture customers meet the growing global demand for protein in the most healthy, pro- ductive and sustainable way possible.”
In its latest Feed- 4Thought survey, Car- gill found 93 percent of respondents across the US, Brazil, the Nether- lands and Vietnam said they cared about our ability to feed the world sustainably, with 84 per- cent saying it impacts what they buy.
Animal protein makes the cut, according to most consumers, with 80 percent of survey participants saying it can be part of an envi- ronmentally responsible regimen and 93 percent saying it can play an im- portant role in a healthy diet.
Heifer International president and CEO Pierre Ferrari said: “Ac- cess to poultry meat and eggs can rapidly im- prove people’s diets and
have a major impact on their lives.”
Cargill recently part- nered with Heifer to launch Hatching Hope, an initiative aimed at improving the nutrition and livelihoods of 100 million people by 2030, by training and open- ing markets for subsist- ence poultry farmers and providing nutrition education for their com- munities.
“We’re investing in smart, resourceful wom- en farmers, working with them to improve their products, access new markets and build sustainable businesses that generate living in- comes,” Ferrari said.
Consumers expect companies like Cargill to step up.
When asked who bears most responsibility for ensuring food produc- tion is sustainable, al- most a third of partici- pants selected food and feed manufacturers as their top choice.
Governments came in second (25 percent) and then consumers via the foods we eat (20 per- cent).
Cargill takes this re- sponsibility seriously, with new policies on South American sus- tainable soy, human rights and deforestation, and partnerships such as The Nature Conservan- cy-Nestle Purina-Car- gill initiative to help US farmers conserve irriga- tion water.
Cargill Animal Nutri- tion prioritises deliver- ing sustainability to customers and consum- ers, along with wellbe- ing and performance, as the outcomes of its new five-year strategy.
This shows up in col- laborations such as the ship-sharing partnership with Skretting, which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than one-fifth per trans- ported tonne of salmon feed by reducing unused capacity in Norway.
It’s evident in R&D
and sourcing, where Cargill is exploring nov- el ingredients to solve specific challenges, such as insect meal, algae and Calysta’s FeedKind pro- tein as more sustainable alternatives to fish meal and fish oil in aqua feed.
And it guides the de- velopment of products including the NUGENA line, which can reduce heat stress and feather- pecking in cage-free chickens; and the use of Delacon’s phyto- genic additives, which can lower methane from cows by up to 10 per- cent.
McDonald’s US Supply Chain Sustainability di- rector Townsend Bailey said: “Cargill’s research and innovation around feed additives plays an important role for us in terms of ways we can reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, as well as ways we can reduce antibiotic use.”
Focusing on a broad set of sustainability challenges, from GHGs to wellbeing, reflects consumers’ diverse views on the issues that matter most.
Respondents globally were fairly evenly split between wanting live- stock, poultry and fish farmers to focus on re- ducing antibiotics, using feed with sustainable ingredients, reducing pollutants and ‘doing more with less’ (such as improving feed effi- ciency) – a longstanding sustainability driver for Cargill.
“One of the least told but most significant sto- ries in agriculture today is the incredible pro- gress we are making in helping farmers do more with less,” Warta said.
“All of us in agricul- ture want to raise our productivity and effi- ciency – not just so we can operate our busi- nesses more profitably, but so we can steward resources for the next generation who will take over someday.”
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National Poultry Newspaper, May 2019 – Page 11