Farmers need to be paid fairly if supply crises to be avoided

OVER recent years we have become used to empty shelves in supermarkets and sporadic queues outside petrol stations as shortages hit.

In the early days of the pandemic a rush to stockpile items such as hand sanitiser and loo roll cleared supplies, while panic buying did much the same at the pumps over fears of disruption to fuel supplies.

Consumers scenting a whiff of shortage in the air act quickly and stocks of essentials rapidly diminish. The self-fulfilling prophesy of panic buying can turn a drama into a crisis overnight.

Given so much of our food travels long distances to arrive in our shopping trolleys, it doesn’t take much to stretch supply lines to breaking point. And now it is eggs that are becoming sought after.

Worried about running low, consumers have doubtless been putting an extra carton into their basket over the last week or two, just in case.

The result is that some supermarkets have introduced rationing to limit the number of cartons customers can buy in order to spread dwindling supplies more fairly.

A complicated tangle of factors lie at the root of current egg shortages gripping the UK.

Spiralling inflation, much the result of the war in Ukraine, has resulted in rising costs for poultry farmers – ranging from grain feeds and heating to the price of replacement laying pullets and egg packaging. Add to that the impact of the current serious outbreak of avian flu, which has confined free range birds to sheds and imposed hygiene and movement restrictions on farmers, and the industry is facing a range of extremely difficult challenges.

The soaring cost of producing eggs has seen farmers’ finances stretched to the limit. They argue that supermarkets – keen to hold down prices during the ongoing cost of living crisis and in fierce competition with one another over market share – have failed to take into account the rising expense of production and reward farmers fairly for the eggs they are delivering.

With profit margins squeezed, many farmers are simply shutting up shop and selling off or culling flocks to avoid losses mounting.

It has been the same story in other farming sectors, such as dairy, where landing a seemingly lucrative deal with a supermarket can leave producers out of pocket as times change and production costs rise. Stores rightly wish to keep prices as low as they can for shoppers – but farmers must also be paid a decent price for the quality food they produce to high standards in this country.

As East Devon MP Simon Jupp told a Westminster debate, reported on Page 6: “Supermarkets have had their jam; it is time that farmers had some too.”

We may have to get used to paying a little more for our groceries if we are to keep our farmers in business and supplies on the shelves.

Environment Secretary Therese Coffey has said there are sufficient numbers of laying hens on UK farms and she is confident the country “can get through” the current egg shortages. That may be so. But as farmers struggle to make ends meet in the current economic climate, we may find other foods start running short.