Egg shortage in New Zealand will continue for months while farmers raise another 300,000 laying hens

It may take a few months for the egg shortage to get back to normal, says an industry leader. Egg Producers Federation director Michael Brooks said the country had about 3.5 million egg laying hens, but needed about 3.8m to assure a constant supply of eggs. To get laying hen numbers up would take months, because a chick that hatched today would not lay eggs for another four or five months, he said. An egg shortage had been making headlines over the past few weeks and Brooks earlier warned inflation and the cost of new hen housing could cause egg prices to increase this year. Under the new layer hen code of welfare, hen cages were phased out at the end of last year and hen numbers were down as farmers moved to new production systems. Fifteen small free-range egg farmers had closed over the past two years, with no new free-range farms opening last year, Brooks said. Supermarkets preferred buying from large egg suppliers that provided consistency and national coverage. The ...