STRATEGY ▶▶▶
Tips for marketing eggs from around the world
Marketing eggs offers a direct way of improving profit margins for farms but is by no means an easy task. A recent Nuffield Scholar in the UK, Jamie McIntosh, looked at how egg consumption is driven around the world.
BY JAKE DAVIES T
he UK sits in the middle of the pack when it comes to egg consumption. While concerted efforts have seen the per capita number of eggs eaten per year rise steadily over the last three decades – now hov-
ering at around the 200 a year mark – the UK still lags far be- hind super consumers like Japan (333) and Mexico (360). The UK is also behind a number of countries with shoppers of a similar socio-economic profile. Australia, Canada, Denmark and Germany are all approaching 250 eggs a year, indicating there is room to lift consumption. It’s what drove Lohmann technical manager Jamie McIntosh to undertake a Nuffield Scholarship looking at different markets and how they drive egg consumption. He examined how businesses across the globe harness the health profile and convenience of eggs in their promotional messages1
. Emerging threats
Eggs have had a mixed perception in the UK over the decades. In the 1960s the ‘Go to Work on an Egg’ advertising campaign drove consumption to a peak in the mid 1970s. It fell off a cliff as concerns over salmonella contami- nation emerged in the late 1980s, be- fore slowly building again since then. The 2010s have been marked by sus- tained campaigning by animal rights activists that has led to most retailers committing to the end of colony egg sales, McIntosh explains. Egg choles- terol levels are no longer considered a health concern but that message may not have reached shoppers effective- ly, he adds.
6
The move to plant-based diets could also challenge egg consumption. JUST INC is one company determined to replace eggs with its mung bean- based substitute with products in- cluding mayonnaise, with Just Scram- ble already on the market. The company has raised more than US$ 200 million and aims to have “the widest impact as fast as possible” when it comes to replacing eggs pro- duced by hens. McIntosh was struck by the company’s drive – five Miche- lin-starred chefs and a number of bio- chemists were involved in product development.
Egg consumption per capita per year
UK 199 Italy 215 Canada 242 Denmark 245 USA 276 Columbia 279 China 307 Japan 333
Health Eggs have a good story to tell when it comes to nutritional profile. They are a complete protein containing all the nine essential amino acids that the human body needs but cannot make for itself, as well as a range of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Hens’ diets can also be enriched to further boost nutrition, McIntosh says. But more recent work has found that eggs have a major role to play as a ‘brain food’. They contain a balance of fats that can feed brain develop- ment and are rich in choline – an essential nutrient impor- tant for memory function and healthy cells. Choline is of ben- efit to developing babies but it has been estimated that some 90% of pregnant women do not consume enough of it. At the other end of life, the vitamin D present in eggs (one of the few foods that contains it) and protein content can help to ward off sarcopenia – the degenerative loss of muscle mass common in the over 50s.
Promotion Most countries where eggs sales are strong have a central promotional body, like the British Egg Industry Council, to co- ordinate national marketing (see box, top targets for egg con- sumption). They often coordinate consumer-facing social me- dia campaigns (top tip – keep content fresh) and increasingly target the food service sector. One campaign by Egg Farmers
▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 3, 2020
PHOTO: HENK RISWICK
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
