Booming Ukrainian egg exports spark woes in Ukraine and the UK

Over the past 3 months, wholesale egg prices in Ukraine jumped by nearly 20%, Sergey Karpenko, chairman of the Ukrainian Poultry Farmers Association, told local press. To some extent, the dynamics are attributed to a seasonal factor, as egg prices always rise during the autumn and winter months due to a slight decline in output.

However, a sharp rise in foreign sales is also taking a toll. During the first 8 months of 2025, Ukraine exported a record 1.4 billion eggs, which is 82% more compared with the previous year, Karpenko said.

On one hand, Ukrainian egg exporters play a crucial role in maintaining market balance by selling a surplus of eggs abroad. This surplus helps to stabilise the market. However, the success of these exports also allows Ukrainian egg companies to keep prices higher than they would be without exports, as Karpenko admitted.

“Any reduction in export supplies puts pressure on the market and leads to a decrease in selling prices,” Karpenko said.

Ukraine has been experiencing a surge in egg prices since the beginning of 2025. According to official data from the Finance Ministry, in the middle of the year, average retail egg prices were nearly 50% higher than a year earlier.

Importers voice concerns

The surge in Ukrainian egg exports has raised concerns among UK importers. Ukraine has surpassed other EU countries to become the UK’s largest egg supplier, as reported by the UK Animal and Plant Health Agency. This shift has led to concerns about the welfare standards under which these eggs are produced.

During the first 7 months of 2025, Ukraine exported 8 million kg of eggs to the UK, compared with 7 million kg from Poland and 4.7 million kg from Spain.

The number of egg consignments imported for consumption has seen a dramatic rise, from about 3,500 in 2023 to over 10,000 in 2024.

Mark Williams, the chair of the British Egg Industry Council, recently told The Guardian that UK farmers are being placed at an unfair disadvantage by allowing imports of eggs produced under welfare standards banned in the UK.

In particular, Williams pointed out that battery cages, outlawed in the UK since 2012, were still commonplace in Ukraine, and that eggs linked to food safety issues in mainland Europe continued to be traded.

According to the Ukrainian Poultry Farmers Association, the UK ranked second among the largest export markets for Ukrainian eggs in 2025, with a 10.6% share, following Croatia at 11.8%.