Egg prices may go up due to cage war in Europe 

The recent announcement that the European Commission supports a total ban on caged animal farming in the European Union has shocked the domestic poultry market. 

It was announced in Brussels at the end of June that the EC is responding positively to the European citizens' initiative called "End the cage age", which gathered more than one million certified signatures in support. The European Commission registered the initiative back in September 2018, and the supporting signatures were being collected for a year, until September 2019.

During this time, the organizers obtained about 1.4 million valid signatures,

and, instead of the required seven member states, the minimum number of signatures required for validity was gathered in eighteen member states. The initiative enjoyed the biggest support in Germany, where almost half a million signatures were collected. 

At the same time, only 2,550 valid signatures were gathered in Hungary, not enough to reach the validity threshold determined for each member state on the basis of the number of the country’s MEPs.

The European campaign was coordinated by an animal welfare organization called Compassion in World Farming, and almost 170 NGOs took part in the promotion.

The initiative called for legislation to ban the practice of caged farming covering also the farming of pigs, cattle and rabbits in addition to poultry.

Organizers argue that hundreds of millions of farm animals in the European Union are kept in cages throughout their lives, which causes enormous suffering to them. 

“Inhuman treatment” is a cruel and unnecessary solution for animals, as the initiators claim that cage-free systems that are much more favourable to animal welfare have also proven to be viable.

In Hungary, the use of cages in the production of table eggs - especially in large poultry farms rearing hens for eggs - is most widespread, so the ban can cause major problems here. 

It is true, though, that in this sector there are also alternative solutions, such as the so-called deep litter, free-range or organic poultry farming methods. 

In intensive rabbit production, however, the situation is different because it is not conceivable without cages or stalls, although the economic weight of this sector is undoubtedly much more modest.

In addition, cages play an important technological role in pig and cattle farming, where they are used as pig farrowing crates or calf boxes. 

It is no coincidence that Agriculture Minister István Nagy publicly backed the practice of caged animal farming after the commission's proposal had been published. 

In a video message, the minister specifically mentioned the farming of hens, where he said banning the use of cages would be wrong both from a legal and agricultural point of view. 

He argued primarily that keeping hens in cages could help prevent diseases such as salmonellosis or bird flu. In addition, the ban on the use of cages also raises the question of how much it would drive up the price of eggs.

This would undoubtedly be one of the biggest problems, because the ban would most certainly lead to higher prices.

This is because alternative farming methods cost more, so farmers would be forced to pass on the extra costs to consumers. 

This is particularly true in Hungary, where the share of caged and alternative farming is 80-20 percent, and even in Europe the proportion is 50-50 percent today. Domestic players fear that surging egg prices would not be affordable for a wide range of customers, so banning the use of cages would lead to further tensions.

However, referring to the results of the citizens' initiative, the European Commission argues that there is now a need for more ethical and sustainable farming systems in the European Union. 

In addition, the elimination of cages would be in line with the "farm to fork" strategy adopted at EU level and also with the requirements of the European Green Deal.

Therefore, the European Commission has now committed itself to presenting a legislative proposal to phase out the use of cages for all relevant farm animals by the end of 2023. 

Hungarian farmers are prepared to do more to improve the welfare of farm animals, but not beyond the limits of rationality - emphasized István Nagy, who also made it clear that Hungary is ready to contest any decision that affects producers negatively. 

According to domestic players, the EC proposal lacks the necessary professional foundation, so preparatory work has started in order to gather appropriate professional counter-arguments against the EC decision, növekedés.hu has been informed. 

Experts are already pointing out that the elimination of cages would further increase the ecological footprint of agricultural production and would therefore jeopardize the basic sustainability goals set out in the European Green Deal.

From a market point of view, it is believed that consumers should be given the right and opportunity to choose between products from different farming methods. 

Therefore, another campaign may be launched on the initiative of Hungarian citizens to start collecting (counter)-signatures for cages to be kept in use, justifying this farming method and presenting its advantages. 

The view of the European Association of Poultry Processors and Traders (AVEC), which has a strong voice in the EU, will be very important in the debate affecting the poultry sector. 

AVEC has already criticised EU regulations several times, saying that it is imposing newer and newer animal welfare and other requirements on its own poultry producers, while, for example, leaving unjustified room for imports of poultry meat and eggs from third countries, which has a market-destroying effect.

What makes the situation particularly controversial is the fact that Brussels has continuously tightened the regulations on animal farming and animal welfare since Hungary's accession to the EU, generating additional costs for farmers. 

Producers last had to implement major changes in 2012, when they had to replace the cages used until then with new ones for animal welfare reasons. 

These changes already caused extra investment costs for Hungarian farmers in the order of ten billion forints and now the planned ban would mean that the new cages would also have to be discarded.