Waitrose, Co-op, Sainsbury’s reaffirm support for egg farmers

Stores Waitrose and the Co-op have pledged additional support for egg farmers as reports of shortage continues to come from across the country.

According to recent reports, Waitrose has committed to investing in its egg suppliers to ensure quality, high welfare, British free range eggs on its shelves. The investment will be going directly to Waitrose egg farmers.

The move underpins the retailer’s commitment to support suppliers through cultivating long relationships and having a payment model which ensures that what it pays takes into account the pressures facing farmers.

Waitrose said it is constantly monitoring the market and farming input costs, and has been increasing the price paid for our eggs over the last 18 months to take into account rising energy and feed costs. It added it is confident it has strong availability of British free range eggs available for purchase both online and in shops.

Co-op too has pledged to continue backing British egg suppliers and has committed a new multi-million pound support package to bolster the help, which will see total additional investment top £5.6 million.

Matt Hood, MD, Co-op Food, said: “We are all aware of the challenges farmers are facing and the last 12 months have been some of the most turbulent suppliers have experienced.

“We continue to work with our supplier and farmers to build an efficient, effective and sustainable British egg supply chain for now and the future.”

Sainsbury’s too has voiced its financial support for egg farmers amid the crisis.

“We understand that farmers who supply our own-brand egg packers are also facing significant challenges and it is clear that this is impacting the number of eggs they are able to produce. To support them we have increased the amount we pay our packers for eggs over the past 12 months, while at the same time remaining focused on keeping prices low for customers,” reports quoted Richard Crampton, director of fresh food at Sainsbury’s as saying.

“In response to high levels of inflation in June we accelerated our support, making a meaningful 20 per cent increase in the amount we pay for eggs and last week we further doubled this investment, paying an additional 20 per cent. This brings the total we have increased pay by over the past 12 months to around 40 per cent,” he said.