Egg Producers Planned to Destroy Eggs and Chickens to Raise Prices

Photo of Kassandra Smith

Kassandra Smith

Senior Editor • Backyard Chicken Coops

Last Updated: 30 May 2014

brown and white eggs

It has recently emerged that in 2012, Australian egg farmers planned to cull millions of factory hens and destroy their eggs as the industry was headed for a 'catastrophic' oversupply.  The plan was to destroy excess supply, so the price of eggs would stay at a level where they would make significant profit, rather than drop dramatically.

The ACCC has now launched a court action against the Australian Egg Corporation Ltd, as they informed egg farmers to enact the culls, to stop the industry's "worrying and disturbing trend threatening current profit levels", which would occur unless the farmers took action in a "co-ordinated and consolidated fashion."

The egg producers were told that if their output "grew by more than 5 percent over three years, they should kill birds up to eight weeks prematurely and donate eggs to Foodbank."

Court action is currently underway.