04 September 2026
The United Kingdom has recorded its first-ever commercial imports of Turkish table shell eggs, marking an unprecedented shift in international egg trade routes that has raised fresh concerns across the British poultry sector regarding animal welfare, trade equity, and flock biosecurity, according to trade data analysed by the British Free Range Egg Producers Association (BFREPA).
Official HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) figures reveal that 40,100 kg of fresh shell eggs, equivalent to nearly 700,000 eggs, were imported into the UK from Turkey in June 2026. Declared at a total value of £50,970, the consignment entered at an average border price of £1.27 per kilogram (around 95p per dozen based on a standard 62.5 g egg), substantially undercutting European competitors. Even after applying the UK’s standard third-country import tariff of £25 per 100 kg (25p/kg), the landed price of Turkish eggs stands at approximately £1.52/kg. This effectively matches duty-free Ukrainian imports (£1.51/kg) and undercuts major EU exporters, with landed prices approximately 40% below typical Spanish, Dutch, and Belgian prices, and nearly 50% below Polish shipments.
While the 40-tonne delivery represents a modest volume compared with domestic UK production or monthly Ukrainian shipments (which exceeded 1,900 tonnes in June), industry leaders caution that its market implications are far-reaching.
BFREPA and British farming representatives have voiced acute concern over differences in production standards. Conventional, barren battery cages, banned across the UK and the European Union since 2012, remain widely used in Turkey’s commercial layer sector. With the UK supermarket sector having largely phased out colony-caged shell eggs, industry observers warn that price-sensitive foodservice, manufacturing, and catering channels remain exposed to cheap third-country imports, leaving domestic enriched-colony, barn, and free-range producers at a severe economic disadvantage.
Beyond welfare and pricing, there are significant differences in flock health status and regulatory frameworks between the two countries, particularly regarding Salmonella enterica serovar Gallinarum. The UK commercial poultry sector eradicated Salmonella Gallinarum decades ago. In Britain, fowl typhoid is a strictly notifiable disease governed by statutory eradication policies with zero tolerance. In contrast, S. Gallinarum has not been eradicated in Turkey, where it remains sporadically present and, in some areas, endemic, particularly in multi-age layer complexes. Because the pathogen persists in parts of its layer sector, Turkey permits the vaccination of commercial laying flocks with live attenuated vaccines, most notably the SG 9R strain. In the UK, the use of live S. Gallinarum vaccines is prohibited, as domestic policy prohibits live vaccine strains that can complicate serological surveillance, mask field infections, or introduce live bacteria into a disease-free production system. While S. Gallinarum is a host-adapted avian pathogen rather than a primary zoonotic cause of human foodborne enteritis, its vertical transmission and capacity to contaminate eggshells represent a biological risk to domestic flock health if imported egg waste, packaging, or cracked-shell material comes into contact with UK farm environments.
