Eggs are in short supply across the country as new regulations ban cages and the industry may take months to meet the demand.
This week, supermarkets around Dunedin have placed limits on egg cartons as battery cage eggs become illegal to produce.
The situation was expected to last months, Egg Producers Federation executive director Michael Brooks said.
Free-range and barn farmers would react to the shortage and increase their flocks, but from birth, a hen took about five months before laying, he said.
Yesterday, the shelves of supermarkets were speckled with free-range cartons, but there were many gaps where cage eggs usually sat.
Signs explaining the situation and two-carton limits were in place at New World Centre City and New World Gardens. There was no limit at Countdown.
The ban has been coming since 2012, when a code of welfare for laying hens was introduced and changes were to be made within 10 years.
Until now, there have been four main methods of producing eggs — cage, colony, barn and free range.
Now battery cages are banned, egg producers have had to shut down or convert to other methods.
However, those upgrading to colony farming, in which chickens are caged in groups of up to 60 with a nesting area, scratching post and perches, will not be able to sell to supermarkets in coming years.
Most major supermarkets have pledged to stop selling colony eggs by 2027 at the latest. Countdown will stop selling colony eggs by 2025.
Foodstuffs spokeswoman Emma Wooster said the ban on cage eggs was a ‘‘significant change for the egg supply industry’’.
In South Island Foodstuffs stores, which include New World, Pak’nSave and Four Square, a temporary limit had been placed on eggs to help support the transition, she said.
Foodstuffs would continue to work closely with the Government and egg suppliers to meet its cage-free target by 2027.
Mr Brooks said farmers felt uneasy about the market, as the supermarkets’ cage-free declaration conflicted with what they had been told in 2012.
Those who had pushed to upgrade their cage farms to colony before the supermarket announcement in 2019 were now in a bad position, so farmers were apprehensive to make moves.
There was also another code of conduct review in 2023, which could restrict laying options further.
The result was a smaller laying industry than New Zealand had in the past. The country had about 3.5 million laying hens now, but in previous years the national flock was 3.8 million to 3.9 million.
Covid and grain shortages caused by the Ukraine invasion had affected free-range farmers too. About 15 small free-range suppliers had gone out of business this year.
