British Egg Farmers Quitting ‘Every Week’ Over Soaring Costs.
British egg farmers are quitting “every week” amid soaring costs, a former Asda buyer has warned.
Ged Futter, a former senior buying manager at the supermarket, warned the UK will struggle for home-grown foods this year as farmers turn their back on the industry.
The price of food is rising at its fastest rate on record, new data released on Wednesday shows, up to 13.3 per cent in December, from 12.4 per cent in the previous month.
Fresh food inflation alone leapt to 15 per cent for the month from 14.3 per cent in November, although overall shop price inflation eased slightly to 7.3 per cent.
Supermarkets are piling pressure on farmers to keep prices low for their customers.
Mr Futter, who is a retail analyst, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Farmers are under massive pressure and actually what they’re doing if they can’t get the prices they need, they are actively coming out of the sector.
“That is the biggest worry that we’ve got at the moment – how many farmers are leaving the sector, whether it’s eggs, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers – in big parts of where we get our food from there are farmers leaving every single week.”
It comes as hundreds of British farmers gather to discuss costs at the Oxford Farming Conference on Wednesday, the UK’s main agricultural forum.
Among those speaking will be Mykola Solskyi, Ukraine’s food and agricultural minister. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February caused the cost of key farming materials to spiral.
Many Britons have seen egg shortages on supermarket shelves in recent months, with a third of farmers surveyed in November by the British Free Range Egg Producers Association having reduced hens in their flock due to prices, and a quarter halting production entirely.
The National Farmers’ Union has called on the Government to step in over feed, fuel and fertiliser prices, warning that “the country is sleepwalking into further food supply crises”.
Mr Futter said: “Things will only get better if farmers and producers can get the prices they need, if they can’t – because things like greenhouses take a huge amount of energy – they won’t be having them full.
“So I’d love to say that we can get all the food we need from British producers and growers this year, but there’s a lot of work to be done yet to make sure that happens.”
Helen Dickinson, the chief executive of the British Retail Consortium said: “It was a challenging Christmas for many households across the UK.
“Not only did the cold snap force people to spend more on their energy bills, but the prices of many essential foods also rose as reverberations from the war in Ukraine continued to keep high the cost of animal feed, fertiliser and energy.”
Credit: The Telegraph (UK)
