Free range egg producers are warning that their industry is in crisis and that the price of eggs must rise to avert catastrophe.

They are calling for the UK’s major retailers to immediately increase the price of a dozen eggs in their shops by 40p.

Farmers are being hit from all sides by huge hikes in energy and feed costs, as well as an increase in labour costs and raw materials.

A huge number of free range egg farmers are currently losing money on every egg laid by one of their hens.

Some say they can last six months before they go bust, while others are on the brink now.

The message has been backed up by the British Egg Industry Council which has today (March 31) also called for an immediate price rise to save farms.

Eggs are one of the cheapest protein sources on the planet, but the British Free Range Egg Producers Association (BFREPA) says farmers have been cut adrift by an unrelenting squeeze on their profit margins which have now been completely eroded in many cases.

Any increase in the price of eggs in the shops must see the money make its way down the supply chain to the farmers who need to save their businesses from collapse, the organisation says.

BFREPA’s CEO Robert Gooch said: “For months we have been raising the desperate situation with all the major retailers, and they have all ignored the perilous position their farmer suppliers are in.

"We contacted Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Tesco, Waitrose, Lidl, Aldi and Marks and Spencer. Not a single reply was received.

“There have been small rises in the price of eggs in shops, but that money has evaporated before it gets to the farm gate.

"It’s the same old story of the farmer at the bottom of the chain being the last to see any price rise.

“This is not a false flag – the free range egg sector is in crisis and if something doesn’t change these farms will close and the people who run them will not have an income.

"This is a situation entirely out of farmers’ hands.

"The whole world can see that feed and energy prices have gone through the roof – that has consequences and we believe shoppers will understand the need for the egg price to increase on the shelves.”

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Tom Pope from Somerset has only been in free range egg production for six months and says the situation is dire.

He said: “The feed price alone increasing by £100 per tonne adds 20p to the cost of producing a dozen eggs on the farm, and every consumer will have heard about the energy price rises that are about to hit.

"For us, that means our energy bill will increase 200 per cent on the current deal we have, leaving us with £40,000 to pay.

“My business needs a price rise now, in addition to keeping a tracker condition on the feed price which goes up and down with the market.

"The alternative is having to go it alone and sell eggs on the wholesale market to survive, but that’s not what I want to do and not what the whole industry can do.

"The situation at present is desperate.”

BFREPA is calling a crisis summit and inviting every major retailer and packer to attend to outline what they are doing to help support farmers.

All free range birds in the country are currently being housed to protect them from avian influenza, and the eggs are currently being labelled as 'barn eggs'.