Page 4 - National Poultry Newspaper

The author’s free range eggs of choice.
THOUGH not expect- ing alcohol at an A A breakfast, I did have high hopes of a yummy sit-down brekky of ba- con ‘n’ eggs, warm toast with lashings of butter, preceded by muesli and fresh fruit, rounded out by a selection of pastries and coffee.
Alas, at a November 20 Agribusiness Aus- tralia breakfast function in Perth’s CBD, it was, somewhat surprisingly for a fairly fat fee of $90, a stand-up brekky, admit- tedly including a tasty ba- con ‘n’ egg slider, muesli in a plastic cup, a pastry, some fruit and help your- self coffee.
Knowing guest speaker Ian Wilson as I do from my regular visits to his Fremantle Egg Company where I buy his jumbo free-range eggs for the table and chicken manure for the garden, it was a refreshing surprise to see him so smartly and ap- propriately suited up for the auspicious occasion.
Addressing A A mem- bers and guests post- brekky in the adjacent lecture theatre (ahh, got to sit down, what a de- light) as president of the Commercial Egg Produc- ers Association (WA), Ian was typically considered,
So concerned is Ian and fellow CEPA members that on their behalf he has petitioned WA’s Up- per House of Parliament (the Legislative Council), asking that they examine:
• Egg shortages in WA supermarkets;
• Egg pricing decisions in WA, including why WA has lower egg prices than any other state or terri- tory;
• The ability of suppliers to renegotiate prices when impacted by seasonal events such as drought;
• Supermarket auditing and traceability processes and standards to ensure consumers are getting what they pay for; and
• Clarification on the support measures major supermarkets would pro- vide to help commercial egg producers potentially expand free-range egg production systems.
• Signatories are asked to return their signed peti- tions by February 20.
Highlighting the is- sues egg farmers faced with supermarkets, where CEPA felt that retail deci- sions were taking control of the market, Ian flagged this ‘shopping list’ of concerns:
•WA producers have gone from being price givers to price takers;
• Decision made by Coles WA in May 2019 to no longer stock caged eggs, without any industry consultation;
• Retail pressure to move to majority cage free production systems by 2023 – limited time, land and support to effec- tively and efficiently plan any potential transition;
• Acquiring capital to build new farms;
• Wholesale pricing and negotiation – facing a similar situation and is- sues to dairy farmers in
working with major su- permarkets; and
• Ability to managing any potential reduction of overall cage production – impacts on industry and reliant industries such as hospitality and food ser- vice.
Ian presented a quick snapshot of the WA egg industry, as follows:
• West Australians eat 1.5 million eggs every day;
• Retail value in WA is $150 million per year;
• Comprises up to 80 businesses currently registered with the WA Health Department in- cluding major commercial and smaller specialist pro- ducers;
• Twelve to 14 large- scale commercial egg pro- ducers, with two having a million birds each;
• About 49 percent of the eggs produced are free range, with 46 per- cent caged and 5 percent barn; and
• At June 2018, WA had 8.3 percent of the national egg-laying flock.
Fremantle Egg Compa- ny was effectively started almost 80 years ago on 40ha by Ian’s grandpar- ents, Irish immigrants Andrew and Ethel Wil- son, before his parents Victor (dec) and Alma took over.
Alma still lives on the farm and helps occasion- ally with door sales.
The Wilsons have come full circle, commencing in 1940 as free range, which continued un- til 1970, then setting up cages for their hens until in 2008 reverting to free range, which is where they are at today, pro- ducing about 12,000 eggs a day from their 14,000 Hyline Brown hens.
WA egg producers scrambling to survive
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Cant Comment by BRENDON CANT
thoughtful and refresh- ingly candid in delivering a talk that centred on the trials and tribulations of being a price-taking egg farmer while similarly having no wriggle room on input costs.
Therein lies the prob- lem, or so it seems: big supermarkets dictate what price egg farmers receive and the grains in- dustry dictates the price paid for feed, which can comprise maybe three- quarters of costs.
Perhaps ironically, the A A function was held in the Dexus building, 240 Saint Georges Ter- race, home to Australia’s largest co-operative, the CBH Group, owned and controlled by more than 4000 WA grain-growing businesses and with a core purpose of sustain- ably creating and return- ing value to grain grow- ers.
For egg farmers, the bottom line is starting to smell and we all know what that rotten egg smell is like.
Page 4 – National Poultry Newspaper, December 2019
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Commercial Egg Producers Association (WA) president Ian Wilson addressed the Agribusiness Australia WA networking breakfast.