Ruffled feathers

The price of eggs has suddenly shot up all around the world. So what's going on in New Zealand?

- ANDREA GRAVES

Egg-pocalypse hit my local New World on Christmas Eve. By 8.30am, shoppers were in a flap because eggs had sold out. A national shortage had been predicted for months and came to fruition just when we wanted to whip them into meringue, then top them with berries.

There were simply not enough hens laying eggs to meet demand-about 400,000 too few. And the situation is not expected to improve until later this year, when egg farmers' current chicks become old enough to start laying.

There are several reasons for this deficit, but a key one is the end of battery cages. Since their demise was announced in 2012, to be phased in over 10 years, the proportion of eggs coming from caged hens has shrunk dramatically. Most hens in the country's 126 laying-hen farms are now housed in large sheds. Hens confined to these sheds lay what are known as barn eggs, while hens with daytime access to the outdoors are known as free range. Barn hens are uncaged, have litter on the floor, and can be stocked at seven birds per sqm. Free-range birds can be stocked at nine birds per sqm, and can go outside during the day.

Although battery cages became illegal on January 1, another type of cage exists. Shoppers may not know their eggs come from caged creatures, because their eggs are not labelled as such. They are "colony" eggs, according to the cartons.

There's no perfect egg-farming system, as each has pros and cons. But the controversial landscape of animal-welfare considerations, along with world events such as war and a pandemic, has whipped up a flurry of changes in the egg business that's ruffled the feathers of farmers, retailers, shoppers, and the hens themselves.