‘FARMERS can only save the planet and feed the nation, if we have a healthy bank account.’

Those were the sentiments aired by NFU Scotland delegates, during a lively conference session, which saw members go head-to-head with Tesco, accusing the retailer of ‘unfair pricing tactics’ and ignoring industry warnings over egg shortages, last year.

Delegates argued that farmers were ‘picking up the tab’ for retailers’ profits and called for greater transparency and a fairer return for their products on the supermarket shelves.

Agriculture Manager at Tesco, John Kirkpatrick, acknowledged the ‘perfect storm’ of challenges facing poultry and egg farmers, citing rising feed costs, Avian Influenza and colony egg suppliers leaving the market.

He told delegates that last year, the retailer awarded five, five-year British shell egg contracts – one going to Scottish supplier, Glenrath Farms - which he argued would provide ‘some stability, allow for investment and inject some confidence’ back into the sector.

“Over the last 12 months we have put an additional £27.5m into the egg sector. We are trying to take out the noise and mitigate risk for our supply base.”

He stressed the importance of engaging with suppliers, to ensure more transparency and cooperation along the supply chain but was challenged by Chairman of the British Free Range Egg Producers Association (BFREPA), James Baxter, who accused Tesco, and all major retailers of ignoring warnings from industry leaders about egg shortages, when they wrote to retailers back in April 2022.

“You talk about transparency and the need for better stakeholder engagement, but we tried to engage with all retailers to invite them along to meetings and warned if they didn’t do something on the retail price of eggs, there would be an egg shortage, but nobody replied,” he said, during a fiery Q&A session.

“I want to know whether retailers are embarrassed that shelves are empty, and they didn’t engage with us?”

NFU Scotland Pigs and Poultry Chair, Robert Thompson, told the SF that with retailers making commitments to go cage-free by 2025, this will equate to 7m less hens in production. He was also keen to point out that there isn’t a ban by the government on cage free eggs and that retailers have instead chosen not to stock them, arguing that this was another example of retailers making decisions without properly engaging with farmers.

James Baxter reiterated the need for more engagement and called for fairer price negotiations, stressing that the reward must outweighs the risks, if farmers are to continue producing eggs.

“We hold the solutions to the climate, food, and biodiversity challenges, but to enable us to play our part, we need to make a fair return for our products. An empty bank account doesn’t allow you to do anything, and farming has been running on an empty bank account for some time now.”