EggGate: The crisis that cracked NZ’s egg industry

New Zealanders have been demanding eggs from free-range chickens. (Image: Getty)

Rebecca Howard, Ella Somers and Riley Kennedy

Thu, 12 Jan 2023

The perfect storm.That’s how Michael Brooks, the executive director of the Egg Producers’ Federation, describes the crisis gripping the industry.In recent weeks, stories of egg shortages have been hitting headlines after caged-egg farming became outlawed from January 2023 – 10 years after the then-National government made the commitment to phase them out.Brooks said the first two steps of phasing out caged farming went “smoothly”, but a combination of factors made the final step particularly tough.They included sup...

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