New leadership in the egg industry as it addresses growing consumer interest in production
Updated
The Australian egg industry has swept a broom through its peak research, development and marketing group as it grapples with regulatory changes to stocking density.
The industry has also announced a new national lobby group for egg farmers, which it says will advocate for more than 5000 egg farmers in Australia.
The changes come after the competition watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), took the Australian Egg Corporation Limited (AECL) to court over what it alleged was cartel like behaviour.
The ACCC lost the case in February 2016, but it has since appealed and is awaiting judgement.
The ACCC did, however, succeed in securing a fine for a former director of the AECL board and former Farm Pride Foods managing director Zelko Lendich in May 2016.
Lawyer Rowan McMonnies has taken over AECL as its managing director, replacing James Kellaway, and would not be drawn on what prompted the leadership changes.
"Really you'd have to ask James why he left. All I know is he resigned and I applied," Mr McMonnies said in his first interview with ABC Rural.
"But ultimately the Australian Egg Corporation has been operating for about 14 years now and with a strong team, and some team members felt it was time to go, and the chair Jeff Ironside resigned as well.
"This does present an opportunity for a new chapter in the corporation's history."
Mr McMonnies has previously worked on consumer and competition law, both inside and out the ACCC.
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He said that experienced had him well placed in his new role.
"There has been a process of board rejuvenation.
"We had the AGM last week and two new board members were appointed; Bede Burke, a stalwart of the industry, a relentless contributor and producer and also a new specialist in marketing, Charmaine English, who has deep expert in food and beverage marketing and will be able to contribute to our marketing program."
The changes come as the industry is grappling with increasing consumer demand for free range eggs and regulations that have been drafted on maximum hen stocking density.
New egg farmers lobby group
There are 5250 egg producers in Australia, ranging from the niche free range organic, to the large scale free range, barn and caged eggs.
Now for the first time, there is a national lobby group called Egg Farmers Australia, with John Dunn its Sydney-based chief executive.
"For a long [time] we've had state based advocacy in Victoria, NSW and Queensland and Western Australia, but until now we have not had a national voice," he said.
Mr Dunn said when Pirovic eggs was fined more than $300,000 for failing to get their "free range" hens outside, it was a wake-up call for the industry talk to consumers.
"We've always understood as an industry that we needed to talk to consumers
"But what's happened over the last two years is that we need to do more.
"When ministers were undertaking their review of free range, we knew we needed to get the ministers on farm.
"In egg production, you often need to touch it and feel it, to stand among a flock of chooks.
"We found [it] quite compellingly once ministers got on farm and they understood how our production systems worked, they were very comfortable in advocating a position that the industry had proposed and had done research on, and was in synch with consumers.
"We're pretty pleased with where the current information standard has arrived at."
The draft standard will consider maximum stocking density of one bird per square metre, or 10,000 per hectare and clearer labelling on the egg carton.
Topics: agricultural-prices, agricultural-policy, livestock-welfare, poultry-and-egg-production, sydney-2000, werribee-3030, adelaide-5000, murray-bridge-5253, moss-vale-2577
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