As sure as eggs is eggs
Animal welfare activists take their campaign to the next level, but suppliers and supermarkets say the demands are unrealistic. Susan Edmunds reports.
WHENAuckland mother-of-one Idang Rusden goes to the supermarket, she’s focused on price.
A bargain hunter, she stocks up on whatever brand of eggs is on special. This week, that would probably have been a $4.50 pack of 12 from Farmer Brown.
Paying a few more dollars for free-range eggs doesn’t really cross her mind. Although she says all animals should be treated humanely, she can’t justify spending more if she doesn’t have to.
If there was no alternative, she would change to free-range eggs. ‘‘Maybe, but then, I’m not on the minimum wage. I don’t have multiple children to feed.’’
Countdown says 70 per cent of Kiwi shoppers are like Rusden. Only 30 per cent of the eggs it sells are from free-range or barn chickens.
The supermarket chain should know: throughout last year, animal rights group Safe ran a campaign calling for Countdown to phase out the sale of eggs from caged hens. Protests were held outside supermarkets and shoppers were encouraged to send a form letter to the company.
Now, Safe is taking its protest to the next level with a television and cinema ad campaign featuring actress Aidee Walker, of Step Dave fame.
In the stark attack ad, she is confronted with emaciated battery-caged chickens as she selects eggs from a Countdown shelf. At the end, the camera zooms in on a Countdown logo.
Walker, a long-time vegetarian, recognises that freerange eggs will blow some household budgets and the ad will shock some viewers, but she sees no alternative.
‘‘It has to be shocking to get through. I hate that – it sucks you have to show shocking images to make an impact, but sometimes it works.’’
The ad is set for TV broadcast from early April but this week, Countdown got in first, saying it would remove all cage-laid eggs from its own-brand range by 2022.
It’s not as much as Safe wanted, and Countdown’s move is partly because the supermarket has to do it: by 2022, the current style of battery cages will be outlawed. Only ‘‘colony-laid’’ eggs will be allowed. Countdown’s move means it won’t stock those either.
It’s just not feasible to drop all cage-laid eggs, Countdown says. To reach just the goal it set this week, it will need about 40,000 more free-range and barn-laid eggs, every week. It is giving suppliers five years’ notice to enable them to work towards adequate supply.
James Walker, the supermarket chain’s general manager of corporate affairs, says the decision this week was not about beating Safe to the punch.
‘‘It’s about recognising that there is increasing customer demand for free-range and barn eggs in New Zealand and we want to support and encourage farmers to invest more in these eggs over time and in a measured way.’’
At the moment most New Zealanders aren’t backing freerange with their wallets.
A Horizon poll conducted for Safe showed three-quarters of Countdown’s customers supported it phasing out caged eggs. But we still buy them, and it’s probably due to the cost.
‘‘Kiwis demand affordable JASON DORDAY / FAIRFAX NZ eggs. We know that from how they shop. We need to ensure we don’t do anything that would result in egg shortages, or more expensive eggs,’’ Walker says. Egg farmer Hamish Sutherland, general manager of Zeagold Foods, which supplies Countdown, says Countdown’s move has sent a clear message to suppliers that they may need to change their housing mix.
He says that if Countdown were to sell only free-range eggs across its store, as Safe wants, they would need about 500,000 dozen a week. Current volumes are ‘‘nowhere near’’ that and it would be a struggle to get there within five years.
He harks back to the cost argument, too. ‘‘For lower-income families, eggs are an absolute staple. If you buy a $7 or $8 tray and some bread, that’s a whole lot of food for a big household.’’