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Ep 30 | BEIC CEO Nick Allen — Egg demand breaks 200 per head and trade and welfare tensions
139 Plays1 month ago
UK egg consumption is climbing again, but welfare reform, planning and trade policy will determine whether domestic supply keeps up.
Tom Woolman and Tom Willings speak with BEIC CEO Nick Allen, eight months into the job after a career in soft fruit, on what the Government’s animal welfare strategy means for the sector.
Mr Allen sets out the BEIC’s remit across 11 trade bodies and the Lion Food Safety Scheme, then previews a £1.5m consumer campaign for 2026 aimed at health, protein and convenience, with millennials a key audience.
The demand signals are strong. UK sales hit 13.6 billion eggs in 2024 (around 26,000 a minute) and per‑capita consumption is put at 209 eggs a year, up from 199. Kantar points to roughly 5% volume growth through 2025.
On enriched colony cages, the consultation’s preferred 2032 end‑date (options range to 2038) raises feasibility questions. Replacing 6–7m hens could mean around 200 standard 32,000‑bird free‑range units and 2,500–3,000 hectares of land, on top of £400m+ already invested in the last transition out of conventional cages to colony.
Trade equivalence is the other pressure point. Ukrainian egg product imports have risen to around 11,000 tonnes in the year to Sept 2025, largely into manufacturing and foodservice and typically around 20% under UK equivalents. The UK is extending tariff‑free access from 31 March 2026 to 31 March 2028, while the EU runs a tariff‑rate quota.
Also covered are beak trimming progress via the Laying Hen Welfare Forum and why “zero‑day” in‑ovo sexing is the key milestone for male chicks.
Sponsor message — Morspan Construction. UK market leader in clear‑span steel‑framed poultry buildings, handling planning, design, project management and construction. https://morspan.com | 01291 672 334
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Transcript
Return of the Hosts
00:00:15
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Poultry Network podcast. I'm Tom Woolman. And my name's Tom Willings. Back again. Yes. Well, you're back. you're More specifically, you're you're back off of a ah off of ah a transatlantic flight, aren't you? I've been i've been crammed in um yeah confinement for for yeah several hours over overnight in the in the back of a Delta Airlines plane. no Not complaining, not complaining. ah Sleeping pills help me get about four hours kip, so I'm on fine, fine form. But in about another hour or two, I'm pretty sure i'm going to collapse.
00:00:49
Speaker
Well, you'll be well within your rights too by the time we
Introduction of Guest: Nick Allen
00:00:52
Speaker
get there. but But if we could just keep on going for half an hour more, that would be greatly appreciated. We should stick to topic because we've got an important visitor today.
00:01:01
Speaker
Yes. We're joined, aren't we, by Nick Allen, the chief executive at the British Egg Industry Council, which, um yeah, we've we've done we've done chicken and and turkey. And yeah, about time the egg sector came to it came to the party. So delighted delighted to welcome Nick. What was Nick's background before he did he did this then? Because he's been doing this for eight months, hasn't he? He's been in this post.
00:01:25
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. And then prior to that, had a career in fruit. So I guess the common ground is supermarket supply chains and um yeah a lot of involvement with with with growers, with cooperatives in fruit, not necessarily where we are. But um yeah, the the the common denominator is managing a ah diverse and and diffuse group of um of farmers and and and supplying product into supermarkets. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and then eight months in, um you know, now now nicely settled. So look forward to hearing his thoughts on all of the different moving parts and the politics and um and the general health of the nation.
00:02:05
Speaker
Great. Let's get on with the interview then.
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00:02:10
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:02:36
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00:02:56
Speaker
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00:03:13
Speaker
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Roles of the BEIC
00:03:26
Speaker
Hello Nick, and welcome to the Poultry Network podcast. Hi, good afternoon. Nice to meet you. Good to see you. Great to meet you. Have you got your feet under the table now, Nick?
00:03:39
Speaker
Yeah, it's been eight months and learning all about this amazing new sector coming from Softfruit. So yeah, getting getting there. i do I'd still say I learn something new every day, and without any doubt, maybe more than one thing I learn every day. But yeah,
00:03:55
Speaker
yeah it's it's been quite the introduction i've said there's a lot going on in this sector but it's you' you've joined you have you have joined when the pace of change does not seem to want to let up Yeah. I mean, when you look at, when we look at what's going on just since Christmas, really with the animal welfare strategy coming in, we're still dealing with the fair dealing regulations, trade in Ukraine, planning consultation.
00:04:24
Speaker
We've just launched, as I'm sure you've seen our one and a half million and for PR and advertising campaign for 26. So, chuck into that a little bit of, um continued sort of negotiations and pressure with the RSPCA-assured, which I know we'll come on to um So, Nick, there's been lot going on, yeah yeah. Not all of our listeners are from the egg sector, so um some of them might not be up to speed with the BEIC and what it does. So could you just lay out in basic terms what the BEIC is, what it does, and and what what your role is?
The British Lion Food Safety Scheme
00:04:58
Speaker
Yeah, course.
00:04:58
Speaker
Yeah, so the the British Egg Industry Council, we... are made up of 11 trade associations in the UK. um It's easiest to say that the main ones are NFU, so all the National Farmer Unions across the country, the four of them.
00:05:14
Speaker
um and the British Free Range Egg Producers Association. itt um And I'm not going to remember all 11, but if we add into that, pull its hatcheries, you know, all all the way through the supply chain. So it's it's covering from hatcheries all the way through to sellers of eggs. So and we call them lion subscribers. So the the nobles and the stone gates of this world. So um we're fully covering the whole supply chain that's feeding into the BEIC.
00:05:39
Speaker
um Then the BEIC has three main roles. We do some lobbying, um which we'll be talking a bit about today, and politics, um the trades and the PR that I've talked about as mentioned earlier as well.
00:05:52
Speaker
And then we run the Lion Food Safety Scheme. So the British Lion Food Safety Scheme. is still the leading food safety scheme in the world, um born in 1998 and going very strong um with lots of consumer recognition and lots of support.
00:06:06
Speaker
So it's kind of three roles, but lobbying PR, but without forgetting probably the most important one running the Lion Standards. We often take it for granted, but you know we're we're in a wonderful position to be able to say with some confidence that that British eggs are among the very safest in the in the world.
00:06:26
Speaker
And um as you say, it is the foundation of everything else that that that we do. We can't lose sight of that. No, think we can do, but I think the British, we should never... and the but It's British, it's the British Lion Food Safety Scheme. It's still, having been to some European and the World Egg organisation, you know, you can still see that um the rest of the world wants to talk about the scheme, how it's put together and and has some envy as to what was created 30 years ago. And it's it's pretty amazing to be here eight months in taking that on.
Animal Welfare Strategy and Future Concerns
00:07:04
Speaker
So I think the main topic of discussion really that we wanted to get into with the with you, Nick, was linking to the government's animal welfare strategy that came out. And and one of the main pieces of that um was ah the proposal that they've got to phase out colony cages from UK production.
00:07:23
Speaker
um Colony cages ah used to be the majority of production. They're not now, but they are still, a um I suppose, a significant enough part, aren't they, of um of of of how eggs are produced in this country. And you've got some concerns, haven't you, about what the government is proposing?
00:07:40
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. um we Bullet pointing them off quickly, but we're concerned from a consumer point of view. um And we'll get into the detail. too We can talk the detail a bit more. But consumers, the import issue that exists around welfare as well,
00:07:54
Speaker
the timescale is pretty short and this the consultation is suggesting a six year timescale with the phase out of enriched colony cages by 2032. So that seems quite short. um And then we've done a little bit labelling as well. So, and then just planning in general. So there's a multitude of issues here. And i think just before we really get, if we dive into any of those in in more detail,
00:08:18
Speaker
This is ah a welfare welfare strategy that's come out that's looking at one topic in isolation, but there needs to be a far more holistic view from government about how it's actually going to take the different factors at play here, health, welfare, trade.
00:08:32
Speaker
i think I think it's even broader than that, Nick, if I can. I think there's a food there's a national issue. security strategy here. There's a national health strategy at play here. What what do our government actually want the population to be eating um that keeps us you know healthy and and sort of nutriitionious ah nutritionally provided for? And then secondarily, where are where are we going to be producing that?
00:09:00
Speaker
and at the moment from a political point of view you know our the confidence in farming is going down the plug hole with uh forever shifting sands moving goalposts however you want to describe it meanwhile and the welfare strategy and you mentioned you know imports and uh um trade deals allow through the back door non-equivalent products to come in undercut the market and um you know undermine that that same confidence for for for our producers here so i think because we we did have we would have had tariffs against ukrainian egg but didn't is it right didn't we remove quite a few of those at the start of the ah the war they were removed at the start of the war
00:09:44
Speaker
um my understanding obviously not being directly involved back then but my understanding was that there was a poultry meat and eggs carve out from a free trade deal that was put in place i'm not entirely sure what that covers but i think it's covering quite a lot of food so eggs and poultry meat was carved out of that deal and that the current free trade arrangement ends on the 31st of march 26. obviously it's now being extended with ukraine to the 31st of march 28 on a free trade basis i think it's important to note Europe does have a tariff rate quota in place. So we are so so these eggs are crossing the continent to ah to arrive here. And having already established quite a foothold, you know, another another two years is, well, if they weren't established yeah already, they certainly will be um yeah two years down the line.
00:10:37
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, i mean it's It's easy for people to say that the number looks quite small. um As we know, the data is not brilliant, but the best data we've got at the moment is there is 11,000 tonnes of Ukrainian egg egg products brought in in twenty to September 2025. If you go back two or three years, it was negligible.
00:10:57
Speaker
It was kind of 45 tonnes. So the growth is huge. And then if you recognise that not... None of those will end up in UK retail. So this is going into wholesale, food service, food manufacturing.
00:11:09
Speaker
This, you know, you've got about probably this is now rep starting to represent far more than 5% of the total supply going into those markets at prices that are typically 20%, between and equivalent less than the than the equivalent u k And and those are coming those are coming from conventional battery cages, aren't they? So they're not even coming from from the colony cages and the welfare standards that we have in the UK. So it's almost like the government is proposing not only that we move a ah step ahead of where a lot of our imports are coming from, but that we go two steps ahead. And that's going to put us at a real competitive advantage. yeah You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work that out. No, and I think that that's that's where the BEIC comes in. you know Our view is quite simple.
00:11:54
Speaker
now If it's illegal to produce here, it should be illegal to import here. And we need to see that commitment. We shouldn't be banning systems of production in the UK just to put just to bring them in through the back door or through imports. That's not what consumers want.
00:12:08
Speaker
um It's not what our customers want. um And actually, you know if you ask consumers, would they like to see, are they happy with that situation?
UK vs European Welfare Standards
00:12:18
Speaker
can see a massive, a massive number or not. You know, it's pretty significant. Consumers do not want to see systems of production, eggs come from systems of production banned in the UK, banned to produce in the UK, come into the UK and be sold in products. So that's a very big concern as well, really.
00:12:36
Speaker
Playing devil's advocate though, I guess a lot of what well the government is trying to do is trying to align us a little bit, isn't it, with some European standards and and the Europeans are showing as well, aren't they, that they want to move in this direction regarding and colony cages. and could there Could it be that there's actually a bit of strength in in numbers if if we align ourselves with European standards?
00:12:58
Speaker
The EU, um I mean, we've been in some harmonized EU harmonisation discussions already. It's not clear if welfare is going to be included in that or not. You would expect that it would be um if you're going to have a...
00:13:11
Speaker
If you're going to have a European market or be part of a European market, you'd expect to have um similar standards of welfare or the same standards of welfare across that. Otherwise, it doesn't feel like a fair market or anymore.
00:13:24
Speaker
But so, yeah, and and the European consultation on on colony cages has happened and has been completed. So we wait to see what the response is. But um it's it's unclear at the moment where that where that will head.
00:13:39
Speaker
Europe's not exactly a level playing field as it is now, Tom. And you you, you know, different, different countries have different perspectives. Ultimately, whatever the law of the land might be, that's one thing, but the law of the market in that land and the, and the, and the driving forces, that's, that's something together, again, altogether different.
00:14:00
Speaker
Yeah. And you can see differences across from Germany to France, across to other areas of Europe, can't you say, um, Well, in terms of standards, in terms
Trends in Egg Consumption
00:14:09
Speaker
of enforcement. Yeah, absolutely.
00:14:11
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. There were other details in the animal welfare strategy beyond just the the um proposal to remove confinement or in our case, cages. There were um implications for beak trimming and um and and the management of male chicks and in hatcheries as well. Are there timelines yet put on those things?
00:14:37
Speaker
No, so I mean, when we look at the beak trimming, the government continues to work and it's really good that the government does continue to work with industry and through the laying hand welfare forum.
00:14:48
Speaker
I think that is working well for both sides on the and generating understanding. We report back as the laying hand welfare forum every two years to government on progress being made.
00:14:59
Speaker
So that's you know a good a good example of the of government and industry working together, I'd say. um When it comes to male chicks, we recognise that the government's position again back to zero day.
00:15:13
Speaker
So the zero day technology is the same position that the BIC takes. you If we get to a zero day position of InnovaSexin, then the industry will move and the industry will move incredibly quickly because we also have to recognise that at the moment,
00:15:30
Speaker
here we are You can either double the capacity of the hatchery or reduce the size of your but your hatchery by half if this technology works and it's successful. So it's it's not not that the industry doesn't want to move, it's just got to move when the technology is right and its and it delivers.
00:15:47
Speaker
Absolutely right. Absolutely right. Nick, we were talking before we started recording, we were talking about um consumption because referring back to cages, you know the potential of turning off the tap of six, seven million layers, whatever it might be um at short notice creates other consequences. Number one, availability of ah of of eggs um and and how we then replace that volume, whether it's from imports or it's hopefully um domestically produced. we've got ah We've got a planning system that isn't the easiest to navigate and appears to be quite different depending on whereabouts in the country you you're based. And we've got a consumer with an appetite, growing appetite for you know healthy um a healthy protein.
00:16:32
Speaker
But you've got some recent statistics, I understand, on just how many eggs people ah people are eating. why don't you update us? Yeah. Sorry, excuse me. And and I think that know, when we don't just diving back to the welfare, that is the concern from from a consumer point of view is denying a portion of society access to eggs, healthy protein, know, in a world where we're constantly being told about obesity and ultra processed foods, as you know, removing eggs from, eggs from consumers because they won't be able to afford them anymore. If this is about a enriched colony ban, it just just doesn't make sense. And that's where i'm talking about that holistic government policy.
00:17:11
Speaker
from From a numbers point of view, this is something i was looking at before it before I joined the BEIC and I find this fascinating. 13.6 billion an eggs sold in 2024. Appreciate that's not up to date, but you know that's that's a huge huge number.
00:17:27
Speaker
When we think about that, that actually becomes 26,000 eggs a minute, which is one of my my new favorite stats. 26,000 eggs a minute is just mind-blowing. When we look at per capita consumption, we're now saying that we've moved from about 199 eggs per person per year to 209 in the last 12 months.
00:17:46
Speaker
That's our our latest that that that ah may change slightly just as better a data comes through, but we're currently saying 209 eggs per capita, which feels like a pretty significant jump from where we've been through that 200 barrier that I know was was um potentially a cause for concern. and Everybody was looking at that 200 line and thinking, are we are we going to get through that? so If those numbers are right, I think it's an enormous cause for celebration. I'm i'm on my little soapbox championing more people to eat more eggs, more of the time. Anybody listening to this, if you're
00:18:17
Speaker
You know, not eating 10 eggs a week, then I want to know why. But um yeah, breaking breaking through 200 feels like we you've got through a glass ceiling that's been there for a long, long time. And I kind of cast my mind back to the meetings that I would have attended in the BEIC offices.
00:18:35
Speaker
Thinking, you know, 193, 195, 197, and then a stall. Of course, there's been interruption in supply for a whole host of different reasons. Bird flu might be part of it, but definitely the loss of confidence at farmer level in 22 years. and then the bounce back in 23, 24. So there's probably a bit of work to do to to clean that data. But just from 199 to 209, 5% uplift in a single year, I reckon that's once in 25 years that you've seen that. So that's a huge, huge market.
00:19:06
Speaker
Well, and you know we have seen 5% volume growth throughout 2025. So it's been pretty consistent when we're looking at data from Kantar market data. We've seen that 5% volume growth pretty consistently every month.
00:19:23
Speaker
um So it's sort of reflected in those figures as well. so it's As an industry, I think the the confidence is definitely there. and Yes, there remain supply challenges. Yes, bird flu is undoubtedly having an impact, which, you know, and for and for those affected, it's it's all for an awful experience, of course. But um but we can that customer customer demand, or sorry, consumer demand is is
Future Implications of Government Policies
00:19:48
Speaker
really there. And we're particularly seeing it in millennials. So it's the the biggest category that's growing is actually millennials, which is
00:19:55
Speaker
You know, when we look at a PR campaign that is modest, you know, it sounds like a lot of money, but it's still a modest amount of money in the grand scheme of things. But that is a very targeted online activity campaign focused on health, protein, convenience into and into an age group that is primarily millennials.
00:20:15
Speaker
Hmm. So if we look forward then to 2032, and I think the consultation has got a range of options, hasn't it? And one option, their preferred option is 2032. There are other options, aren't there, that kick the changes a little bit further down the line and put it in slightly different forms. But it's almost certainly still in the think the latest, I think, is 2038.
00:20:39
Speaker
i think the latest i think is is twenty thirty eight um What might be the worst case scenario then if if if if they put a hard stop on 2032? Because I'm thinking about the challenges with planning.
00:20:52
Speaker
um If we're going to replace 6 million or 7 million birds, I mean, how many how many mobile units is that? i mean Well, not mobile units, but you can call it 200 32,000 bird free range units, can't you? Big round numbers.
00:21:08
Speaker
We work that out to be about 3,000 hectares. between 2,500 to 3,000 hectares of land if it was all free range. it's ah It's a big deal, particularly when you've got the broiler side seeing its um it's capacity reduction as well, demanding extra space as well. So it's you' you're creating, or the government are potentially creating two sectors really fighting over space.
00:21:34
Speaker
We've seen that impact already in some places through 25, so that that could continue. that's That's not going to be great for anyone. so you know that it's got to be a longer time scale clearly if that's going to happen there needs to be support but there needs to be this this is supporting communication this could be financial support you know you're you're talking about a again you know the attractiveness of this sector is the amazing transformation it's gone through in 15 years but you're talking about the 400 million plus that producers and packers spent to undertake that transformation some of that money won't have been got back yet either so
00:22:11
Speaker
there is a need to support, a need to communicate, a need for the government to be really, really clear clear about the direction of travel and where this sits as well. Because my my understanding, and having not obviously been directly involved, is that sometimes the clarity isn't always there in the definition of of where some of this sits as well. So, know we we need all of those things to support. um Otherwise, and it but it obviously it would need to be longer, but we have to come back to the point that know from BEIC, that if they are going to go down this road of legislating for a ban, then they have to ban ban imports as well.
00:22:47
Speaker
Otherwise, actually what will happen in 2032 is it opens the door to more more in enriched colony cage eggs coming in or battery cage eggs coming in from imports filling that void well nick we we wish you and the whole of the team at the bic every success in in lobbying the government the bic has been a tremendous success story for for british agriculture and has rightly earned the ear of of of power and um yeah right now there's a few things that we'd like to be a little bit different so i hope you can uh
00:23:20
Speaker
Yeah. March down the corridors, bang on the door and and have them have them take heed. Yeah, we will certainly be making all these points on ah on a very regular basis, as you might imagine.
00:23:33
Speaker
I'm sure. what Thanks, Nick. Thank you very Thank for joining us. no No problem.
00:23:41
Speaker
Well, that was that was a good chat, wasn't it, Tom? We learned a lot there. i'm I'm blown away. I'm i'm taken back to ah to the those meetings I referred to in the recording.
00:23:52
Speaker
um yeah Sitting around all of the Packers scratching heads as to why we do all of this work, you know, with great brands and fantastic initiatives in marketing. and it doesn't translate into top-line consumption. And in every magazine you pick up, there's articles about the same thing speculating as to just why it
Industry Challenges and Closing Discussion
00:24:11
Speaker
is. We just don't eat as many as ah ah eggs as our continental neighbours. And here's Nick coming on eight months into the role, and he gets to break news, that the the likes of which you know no one else in the trade has seen for decades. he sees He's coming in and picking up all the credits. No, although in fairness to him, he did he pointed towards the millennials, didn't he? And I i agree with him because I think there is there's quite a seismic shift going on. It's been happening for a while in terms of ah consumers focus on health and choosing health over over other factors when they're choosing food. And that's what chicken's benefiting from and has been benefiting from. um
00:24:50
Speaker
Yeah, and it's and hopefully we are on an upward trajectory when it comes to consumption of both. Yeah, the the warning signs are serious though, aren't they? They are for both sides, which is that, you know, the and the the rule book and the move towards higher welfare and and I suppose um kind of linked to that, the the limitations or the difficulties of things um you know building the number of of sites, with the number of farms into the future, they they have the potential to be a handbrake on demand if it translates into
00:25:22
Speaker
um high pricing and you know we've both um both in both sides of the poultry business or poultry industry you know we've got a product that is on trend you know it's great value it's it's incredibly healthy it's um it's produced with a light relative footprint and um you know we' we're still looking at some pretty tough times ahead with with with changes so yeah I hope Nick and and the and the equivalent on the meat sector are able to help us navigate some pretty choppy waters.
00:25:57
Speaker
Great. All right. Well, I'll see you next week then, Tom.