Organic egg market needs the personal touch

Producers from the organic egg market should aim to stay big enough to survive but small enough to care.

Speaking recently at the Pig and Poultry Fair in Stoneleigh, Patrick Bourns of Barrington Farm Estates said that consumers were often put off by large commercial organic egg businesses.

“We don’t want to get so big that consumers don’t want to buy our eggs anymore. We want to further enhance the offer,” he said.

He commented that the organic egg market was struggling at the moment and it isn’t as secure as it was due to rising feed costs.

Mr Bourns said that the Estate had plans to grow their own breed of birds and build a hatchery with a breeding farm.

We want to make ourselves different from the rest. We are going to offer the complete organic package, with all the birds being completely organic all the way through from the breeding stock.”

According to Mr Bourns, challenges for the future are to maintain the personal touch but to still grow the business.

Barrington Farm Estate is a mixed farm that is 100% organic and is also the largest organic wheat producer in the country.