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The market, fairly quiet but that is expected as we are now in the transition period from summer to winter eating habits, but it is only a month till the clocks change and consumption starts to pick up, if prices can hold on till then, there is a bit of downward pressure on prices with a bit of discounting particular on Medium with some really cheap prices being kicked about, with a good possibility it’s the same eggs.
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) appears to be progressing with a lot of pressure from politicians on both sides of the Atlantic, the article by Jan Cees Bron goes someway to explain what’s going on and the repercussions as it is bound to affect our industry somehow.
In the end it comes back to politicians and negotiators in Brussels and the track record is very few of them understand the problems or the cost of production on food, agriculture is just a negotiable thing and the people working in it cannon fodder in the big merry go round of keeping prices down and industrial output up and as a yard stick the Ukraine has been given associate EU membership and the back door open wide for their agricultural production which is possibly a bigger threat than the USA, but the Americans are the experts in product and that will be their target area.
We need lobbying of politicians, it is amazing how few understand the coding on eggs or the need for it to be carried onto products, it is the look of surprise when explained what it all means, like SCO on eggs produced in Scotland, so what hope is there for the rest of the UK when the school children are better informed than the decision makers.
Mark Williams of BEIC wearing his hat as chairman of the European Egg Packers and Traders Association has been lobbying to try and get special protection status for our egg industry on the grounds of our higher welfare standards which generate higher costs of production this will only work for a fairly short period as the Americans through their proposition 2 are improving their welfare standards, plus the Ukraine is possibly half way there already, quality of product and local image are going to be ever more important in this ever shrinking trading world with the sale of Volkswagens in the US higher up the politicians agenda.
