Just £5.55 a year to switch to free range

Yorkshire Farmhouse Eggs has launched a new “555 Campaign”, claiming that it would cost consumers just £5.55 a year to make the switch from cage eggs to free range.

“The perception of free-range eggs has traditionally been that they are considerably more expensive than the cage-farmed alternatives,” said a statement. “But our research, found the cost of switching from caged to free-range eggs to be much lower than initially thought.”

The company points to the introduction of new welfare legislation last year which, it says, has increased production costs by 40% in the past 12 months.

Yorkshire Farmhouse director Adrian Potter explained how he took a selection of supermarket own label value eggs in mixed weight packs and calculated an average egg price of 15p/egg, (see table below).

He then compared this with the same three supermarkets’ own label free-range eggs, medium size in packs of 12. These gave an average price of 18p/egg.

Based on average UK consumption of 185 eggs per person per year, and taking a price difference of just 3p/egg, the cost increase over 12 months comes to £5.55 – about the same as packet of washing powder or a bottle of wine.

“This new research shows just how affordable making the switch to free-range eggs can be,” said Mr Potter. “We understand that while many people support higher-welfare farming, they have been unable to justify the higher prices in these tough times. Our latest figures show that free-range food is now becoming more accessible.”

The research did not include any eggs on promotion, he added.

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