French farmers smash eggs in price protest

Over 100,000 eggs have been smashed in front of a tax office in Brittany by French egg farmers in protest over low prices.

The group of 20 farmers have threatened to smash 100,000 a day, equating to 5% of Brittany’s daily production, until prices improve.

The farmers are calling on the government for a cut to national French egg production by 5%, to bring the market into balance.

Eggs were pushed from the back of a truck by angry producers and dumped on the pavement outside a local tax office in Carhaix, Brittany. One told French newspaper La Parisien that the eggs had no place on French soil, and the surplus should instead be shipped to developing countries.

Yves-Marie Beaudet, head of the egg section of a union that represents farmers in Brittany, told the AFP that producers were being paid €0.75 for a kilogram of eggs that cost €0.95.

These are the latest in a series of protests from French egg farmers who say investing in enriched cages has hit bottom lines hard, and the cost of raw feed materials is rising faster than the market price of eggs.

Source: Poultry World