When eggs are popular with consumers

At the end of the year, the French will have eaten 229 eggs each, nine more than last year, according to the National Committee for the Promotion of Eggs (the CNPO). How can we explain such an increase in consumption when eggs, like all food products, are victims of inflation? The price of a box of six has in fact increased by 29% in two years.

If the egg has become the darling of consumers it is because, despite the rise in prices, it remains the cheapest source of animal protein. Count 13 grams of protein for an egg compared to 25 for a steak. It is therefore enough to eat two eggs to have the same intake and even a little more. So, in order not to strain your food budget too much, it is clearly better to eat an egg than a beef.

The return of battery chickens?

On the other hand, while the consumption of organic eggs has been increasing sharply for years, we are seeing a decline in this trend. Consumers now favor eggs tattooed with code number 3, that is to say battery eggs, at 1.79 euros, rather than free-range, more expensive, at 2.08 euros for six. A change that might not happen without breaking eggs.

>> By 2022, all eggs sold must come from free-range hens, announced the Minister of Agriculture five years ago

Producer companies have in fact committed to gradually phasing out battery hen farming. Will they go back? Will battery chickens experience a comeback? The biggest producers like the Avril group must stop breeding them in cages by 2025 and they assure that they have no intention of going back on their promises. It must be said that even EFSA, the European food authority, recommends an end to cage farming of laying hens. But all this could well reinforce in their inaction those companies which are lagging behind and which think that cage breeding is still acceptable.