Oversupply has producers worried

The Great Southern’s largest egg producer has joined his peers around the country in expressing concern about an oversupply of eggs in Australia.

The industry’s peak body, the Australian Egg Corporation, has reported the industry produced 392 million eggs during 2011, 10 per cent more than the year before and up 51 per cent since 2000.

Last Sunday, 25 of the country’s largest egg producers met to discuss oversupply problems and subsequent drop in prices.

Albany Farm Fresh Eggs owner Mark McAllister said he was very concerned about the situation.

“The cheaper eggs that are being dumped on the WA market are predominantly from over east,” he said.

“They are talking about culling up to 500,000 hens.

“We’ll just have to sit and see what happens, hopefully we won’t be caught in the crossfire.”

Mr McAllister said his relatively small business of 9000 hens, which is divided between cage, barn and free range layers, was heavily supported by Albany restaurants, which would help protect his business in the future.

“However, there is an oversupply which hasn’t affected us at this stage but is very concerning,” he said.

He also said it would be difficult for producers to export because of the high Australian dollar.

Australians’ egg consumption increased by 7 per cent between 2010 and 2011.

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