British Columbia leads the country in organic, free range and free run egg consumption.
Twenty-two to 30 percent of eggs consumed in the province come from cage free hens, compared to five percent in the rest of the country.
“Our specialty egg (category) is the highest in Canada, in terms of the free range, free run and organic because our consumers ask for it,” said B.C. Egg Marketing Board spokesperson Megan Ward.
“Our producers provide whatever the consumer is asking for.”
Twenty-two percent of eggs consumed in B.C. were specialty eggs last year, including organic, free range and free run.
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However, consumption rates may be even higher because B.C. residents buy a lot of their eggs at farmers markets or direct from the farm, which are excluded from retail sales data.
“Certainly on Vancouver Island, you can’t drive around Victoria without seeing a sign somewhere saying cage free or free range eggs for sale,” said Leanne McConnachie, farm animal programs director for the Vancouver Humane Society.
She estimated that cage free egg consumption could be as high as 30 percent in B.C.
McConnachie said enhanced consumer awareness and the environmental ethic in B.C. partly explain why the province leads Canada and North America in cage free egg production, but the province’s quota system is the most significant reason.
She said most of Canada’s consumer egg data is based on supermarket sales receipts, and the percentage of cage free eggs in those sales often determines provincial allocations of quota to cage free eggs.
However, the market research doesn’t account for egg sales from independent grocers, specialty stores and farmers markets, which is a significant portion of the market in B.C.
Consequently, the Vancouver Humane Society lobbied for changes to the quota allocation because it felt the B.C. Egg Marketing Board underestimated demand for cage free eggs.
The B.C. Farm Industry Review Board agreed in 2010, and the marketing board drastically increased its quota allocation for specialty eggs. As well, egg farmers converted battery cage operations to cage free egg farms to satisfy demand.
McConnachie said the demand for humanely produced eggs has always been higher in B.C. because consumers are more aware of egg production methods.
The humane society has run a cage free campaign for more than a decade, and farms are located close to communities.
“I think it’s out in front of people a little more here,” she said.
The World Society for the Protection of Animals hopes public awareness of how eggs are produced will convince Canadians in other provinces to follow B.C.’s lead.
In late April, the WSPA released results of a survey showing that North Americans are confused about egg production methods. Egg buyers assume 70 percent of laying hens are kept in cages, when in reality it is closer to 95 percent.
“When you ask questions like, where do you think the eggs come from that you’re buying, most people are overly optimistic. They tend to say … its cage free, or free run,” said Jayson Lusk, an Oklahoma State University agricultural economics professor who analyzed the survey data for the WSPA.
“I’ve sat in rooms with randomly recruited consumers.… Most people were woefully unaware (of egg production methods).”
Consumer ignorance represents an opportunity for cage free advocates. The public is likely to choose cage free if it is informed about egg production practices, Lusk said.
He said the market share for cage free eggs could hit 62 percent if 75 percent of egg buyers understood the living conditions of hens in cages, he added.
His analysis is based on data from Oakland and San Francisco, following a 2008 proposition to ban battery cages in California. He said more consumers were aware of the issue following a blitz of television ads promoting and condemning the ban and subsequent retail sales data showed that more egg buyers chose cage free.
McConnachie said consumer knowledge of the issue in B.C. has reached the point where cage free may soon represent half of the egg market.
“Our goal has always been that by 2015 we might see as much as 50 percent cage free in British Columbia.”
