JM Innovations



National & World Ag News Headlines
McDonald's Making Progress in Cage-Free Egg Goals
USAgNet - 04/16/2019

McDonald’s Corp.’s mission to use only cage-free eggs is rippling across the market. According to Bloomberg, the world’s largest restaurant company is about a third of the way to meeting its goal of being entirely cage-free in the U.S. by 2025—a target it shares with a broad array of retailers and food producers. The expected surge in demand has sparked barn upgrades across the country over the past several years, with producers building facilities that give hens a bit more space. This increase in supply is reducing cage-free eggs’ market premium over regular eggs.

And the price gap is expected to narrow even further—a welcome drop for U.S. consumers who are eating the most eggs per capita since 1973. The egg industry’s investment is a response to rising demand for cage-free eggs, which are regarded as more humane and even healthier, while producers are hoping to tap premium prices.

“The supply-and-demand equation will change such that pricing will go down,” said Marion Gross, head of supply chain at McDonald’s in the U.S. “More people will be able to afford cage-free eggs.”

Gross said it wasn’t the company’s intent to alter the egg market, but “if that helps bring access to others, that’s a great add-on benefit.”

The move illustrates how McDonald’s massive size impacts commodity markets. The company says it buys around 2 billion eggs a year in the U.S., or close to 2 percent of the nation’s annual production. A dozen cage-free eggs cost 81 cents more than conventional eggs in February, representing a premium of just over 50 percent, according to data from the USDA analyzed by the Egg Industry Center at Iowa State University. Cage-free eggs’ cost was double that of regular eggs as recently as 2017.


Other National Headlines
TractorPumps.com
Zabel Equipment
Copyright © 2024 - Farms.com. All Rights Reserved.