Supermarkets scandalise with price tactics fuelling egg shortage

It’s tough to argue the great egg shortages of 2022 were a surprise. Way back in the spring, farmers were warning they’d halt production unless the big supermarkets started paying more.

Did the supermarkets listen? Did they heck. The eight largest UK supermarkets all snubbed a key industry summit in May, with Sainsbury’s, Asda, Aldi and M&S accused of avoiding any engagement at all by the British Free Range Egg Producers Association. Tesco and Morrisons at least went to the effort of arguing why their feed tracker contracts were reasonable. 

And so it went on. As late as November, supermarkets and the BRC were still parroting the line that egg shortages were caused by the bird flu crisis, as well as the importance of keeping prices down. But a series of angry social media posts set the record straight, showing how, on the one hand, retail prices were soaring by upwards of 50p per dozen, while on the other, they were not being passed down to farmers – with still only about half the 40p per dozen extra called for by the BFREPA actually being passed down to producers. And despite belated “investment” and “aid” it came too late for Christmas, with many supermarkets cleaned out of eggs completely.