EU interference in egg production

Egg production

A UKIP MEP has highlighted that responsible  egg producers in the North West look as though they may suffer from unfair competition, whilst consumers will be confused over the source of eggs following more EU meddling with British laws.

At a meeting of the European Parliament’s Agriculture and Rural Development Committee on Monday 30th August, UKIP’s agriculture spokesman and Norfolk egg farmer, Stuart Agnew MEP, clashed with a European Commission representative over the Battery Cage ban due to come into force on 1st January 2012.  Mr Agnew was at pains to point out that the egg industry believes that as much as 29% of EU egg production will still be from caged birds when the ban comes into force.

Mr Agnew made the Commission’s options very clear during the Committee meeting: “You have no Plan B, so on 1st January 2012 you will have to make a choice. Either you ban 29% of production which will be replaced by imported eggs from outside the EU, which of course will be produced in battery cages, or you give the non-compliant member states more time, resulting in eggs from different production systems being put on the market under the same label.”

This will mean that once again British industry is threatened by, mainly foreign, companies who fail to comply with the new laws, whilst customers buying eggs cannot be sure if they were produced unethically from caged battery hens.

Nigel Brown

UKIP in the North West.

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