Fipronil crisis barely impacted egg sales

Belgians bought slightly fewer eggs in 2017, but that was not entirely because of the Fipronil crisis. Its expenditures did grow because of a higher average egg price and a continued shift to organic.

Discounters are growing

Egg consumption has stagnated for a while. On average, a Belgian bought slightly more than 71 eggs for 13.1 euro, two eggs or 3 % less than in 2016 and more than 4 eggs below record year 2013’s level. The Fipronil crisis broke in July 2017, but egg consumption was already lower earlier in the year. A higher average price and a continued shift to organic did push egg expenditure 3 % higher according to market research firm GfK Belgium. The VLAM asked it to investigate 5,000 Belgian families’ home consumption.
 

Free-range eggs and organic eggs’ prices each went up 1 cent, to respectively 0.15 and 0.3 euro. The average purchase frequency dropped from 16 to 15 times a year. The number of people who buy eggs also dropped from 93.5 % to 93 %, mainly because of a drop in free-range buyers. The number of organic egg buyers grew from 24 to 27 % and organic now represents 9 % of all eggs sold and 14 % of turnover. It is the only category that attracted more customers. The expanded egg product range also benefited hard discounters Aldi and Lidl: they now have a 32 % market share. The classic supermarket is still the main sales channel, with a 45 % market share. Convenience stores contribute 15 % of the sales volume.