In Britain, chicken eggs have disappeared from store shelves. The reason is the food crisis caused by Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. Speaking of which writes American agency Bloomberg.
This crisis demonstrates how easily the organization of food markets can be disrupted. In such a situation, consumers can’t rely on simple assumptions: You can have eggs for breakfast right now, but in a week or a month, the main dish could change, Bloomberg complains.
Professor of Food Policy at City University of London Tim Lang believes that what is happening in the egg market at any moment could spread to the fruit, grain or meat market.
“It doesn’t take much to disable a certain sector of the economy,” argues the expert. “And I think that’s what we’re seeing.”
However, problems with egg supply cannot be called a purely British phenomenon. Russia’s special operation in Ukraine has led to a sharp increase in the prices of grains, fertilizers and energy resources, the main means of production in agriculture, Bloomberg points out. High chicken feed prices have reduced the income of farmers. Additionally, an avian flu epidemic is ravaging European and American poultry farms, forcing massive slaughters of poultry.
Last month in the United States, egg prices topped the list of food inflation, and in Hungary the government set an upper limit on their value. However, it is in the UK that shelves are empty and consumers are worried about their stock on Christmas Eve.
As the US agency explains, for many years the UK has been content with the relatively low cost of food due to fierce competition between supermarkets. Now the family system is cracking under the pressure of inflation, demonstrating the fragile relationship between retailers and their suppliers. Farmers complain that the price increase has not affected their income.
A survey of members of the British Free-Range Egg Breeders Association found that a third are downsizing chickens either by suspending or abandoning farming altogether.
“Unfortunately, inflation is already here,” he lamented in an interview. Phil Crowley, a Leicestershire egg producer and deputy chairman of the National Farmers Union’s poultry committee. “But he didn’t go down the chain again. As farmers, we need transparency and fairness along the supply chain”.
On Monday, the National Union of Farmers urged the government to urgently investigate whether to introduce “particular market conditionsand allocate assistance to farmers. Says the president of the union Minette ButtersHigh energy prices, supply disruptions and the worst bird flu outbreak cannot, by themselves, lead to empty shelves in stores, writes Bloomberg.
