Most of the cage-free state mandates in the U.S. are planned to come into effect in 2025. Naturally, the egg industry is looking towards California and Massachusetts, who already have 100% cage-free laws implemented, for insight.
Current egg supply
“California’s and Massachusetts’ egg markets are doing well with the cage-free laws,” stated Chad Gregory, agricultural cooperative United Egg Producers president and CEO.
Because new farms take anywhere between 18 months and two years to populate, egg producers have been working towards increasing the cage-free egg supply long before the cage-free deadlines, explained Gregory.
“For a long time, the egg industry was building its inventory to be ready for Massachusetts and California in January 2022. There were extra cage-free hens and eggs being produced for the California market way before the state’s Proposition 12 law went into effect. When January 2022 came, all those eggs could flow into those markets,” he stated.
Future egg supply
From a supply standpoint, the California and Massachusetts egg markets are predicted to be stable in the coming months.
“The industry can absolutely continue supplying California and Massachusetts. Those states provided an outlet for a lot of cage-free eggs that consumers were not buying before,” said Gregory.
As more state mandates draw closer to implementation, the industry will have to continue building its cage-free inventory in advance. However, the real question is directed towards 2025, which is the deadline is for seven of the states that have committed to the transition.
“We don’t know yet if there will be a large enough supply during that time. Its yet to be determined. There is a possibility for states to extend their deadlines past 2025,” explained Gregory. “When these cage-free commitments were being made, 2025 felt far away. Now that it’s 2022, and some of those state mandates have gone into effect, the industry’s tension level is rising.”
