Sunny side up for sales of ethically-positioned eggs

Today, more British consumers than ever before are enjoying their full English breakfasts with a clear conscience. Latest research from MINTEL finds the popularity of cheap battery eggs starting to crack, as consumers scramble for ever more boxes of free-range, barn and organic eggs. With their own health as well as that of the chicken in mind, consumers bought some 2.04 billion free range, barn and organic eggs last year, up from just 1.64 billion in 2002 – an impressive 24% increase. Sales of free range eggs in particular have really started to boil over, rising some 31% since 2002 alone.Although last year battery or laying cage eggs accounted for almost 6 in 10 eggs sold (59%), volume sales of these less welfare friendly eggs fell 8% from 3.19 billion to 2.93 billion between 2002 and 2005.