BIRD flu restrictions for free range egg producers do not justify a price cut to the consumer says Northumberland’s representative on the NFU’s North East Poultry Board.

He was speaking in the wake of concern from egg producers that the future of the premium free range sector could be at risk should the eggs lose their prized status because of the ongoing avian influenza threat.

The British Egg Industry Council said the eggs will be downgraded to “barn produced” if they were unable to go back outside by the end of February.

But Jonathan Goodfellow, who runs a free range poultry farm at Ingoe, near Matfen, said: “Free range egg farmers continue to maintain the same higher welfare standards demanded of free range egg production. The higher cost of production remains the same, therefore I do not feel a reduction in price can be justified under the temporary AI restrictions.”

The government’s chief vet, Nigel Gibbens, declared a prevention zone on December 6 requiring keepers of poultry and other captive birds to keep their birds indoors to help protect them from a strain of avian flu circulating in mainland Europe.

It was the first time a warning to keep all poultry and captive birds indoors had been issued in the UK following an outbreak of bird flu.

Since then, cases have been found on two turkey farms in Lincolnshire, in backyard flocks in Wales and North Yorkshire and in a flock of farmed pheasants in Lancashire – as well as in a number of wild birds around the country.

Concern has since been growing among free range producers because the extension would take the housing order to the end of the 12-week period – imposed by the EU – beyond which free range birds would lose their status unless they were allowed outdoors.

Under current EU rules, products from poultry housed for less than 12 weeks can be still marketed as free-range but this 12-week allowance for birds housed owing to avian flu will come to an end on February 28.

Mr Goodfellow said he was most worried about the extra costs that may be associated with rebranding his eggs. “More of a concern would be the extra costs associated with amendments to labelling and packaging in the interim across the industry,” he said.

The BEIC had said that the industry is planning to put stickers on free range egg packs explaining that the birds were currently housed, accompanied by point-of-sale material in supermarkets and a website for further information, to ensure full transparency for consumers. However, this could hit the free range industry hard, said the BEIC as most free range production in the UK comes from small, independently-run family farms, just like the Goodfellows’, whose existence could be threatened by not being able to continue to sell their eggs as free range, with appropriate labelling, should the current housing order be extended.