Stakeholder Consultations

Australian fuel supply, fertiliser and supply chain pressures

Australia’s agricultural sector is currently experiencing increasing operational pressures across fuel supply, fertiliser and broader supply chains. These pressures are complex, interconnected and evolving, with impacts already being felt across production systems, logistics networks and rural communities.

Australian Eggs has been engaged by the Commonwealth government on the impact of the Middle East conflict and the potential for fuel supply constraints.  

While fuel imports have remained steady in recent weeks, increased demand has seen shortages in some areas and there is the potential for supply to be constrained if the conflict continues for a significant period.  

Australian Eggs is working closely with industry and government to ensure that these impacts are clearly understood, quantified and communicated. Tightening diesel access, rising input costs and supply chain disruption are creating real and immediate challenges for producers and supply chain operators.  Egg farming businesses that are experiencing difficulties with accessing fuel and related supply chain impacts are encouraged to inform Australian Eggs so that these challenges can be incorporated into government plans and responses.  

We remain in close contact with the Australian Government through the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, our fellow Research and Development Corporations and industry stakeholders to ensure real-time intelligence informs a coordinated national response.

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry provides updates on broader agricultural policy settings via its website.

For broader business support, including financial and advisory services, you may wish to explore the Australian Government website and relevant state or territory agencies.

Changes to the Australian Eggs Constitution 

The Constitution of Australian Eggs was adopted in 1999 and was last updated in 2021. A number of minor updates are required to the constitution to reflect the introduction of the Primary Industries Levies and Charges Disbursement Act 2024 (Act) as well as the signing of a new Statutory Funding Agreement (Funding Agreement) with the Commonwealth in 2024. 

Many of the proposed changes are relatively minor in nature and reflect changes to definitions arising out of changes to the Act.  The principle changes between the current constitution and the new constitution are outlined HERE. 

5 Year Strategic Plan Consultation  

Australian Eggs is undertaking a consultation process to develop a five year strategic plan to guide our operations. Consultation with a broad range of stakeholders will take place across 2025 with an initial focus on egg farmer feedback. 

Meetings are currently taking place to obtain feedback on industry long term priorities and a briefing session will be included in the program at the May forum. Egg farmers are invited to engage with Aus Eggs on this process through the website of by contacting Rowan McMonnies or Kelly Seagrave directly. 

To view the schedule for this consultation process, please CLICK HERE

Emergency Animal Disease Response Levy Objection Process

On Monday 23 September 2024 Australian Eggs wrote to all known levy payers to provide notice of the objection period for the activation of the Emergency Animal Disease Response levy (EADR levy).  

As part of the EADRA process, the egg industry has agreed to contribute to response costs and compensation costs arising from avian influenza incidents.  The final incident costs will be determined once the responding authorities have completed the recovery phases of the response and are subject to scrutiny by an independent assessment.  

To provide for these costs to be met, Australian Eggs wrote to the Minister to make a request to activate of the EADR levy on laying chickens on behalf of the industry. The request to the Minister to increase the EADR levy is based on a levy of 11.9 cents per day-old chick from 1 July 2025 over 5 years.  

Like other egg industry levies, the EADR levy is applied to the sale of day-old chicks to provide an efficient mechanism for collection. Details of the levy system are available through the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry website www.agriculture.gov.au/agriculture-land/farm-food-drought/levies/biosecurity-levies. 

The levy increase process required a 30-calendar day objection period to be provided to allow for levy payers to raise objections in relation to the activation of the EADR levy. 

Australian Eggs received a number of objections in response to the notification of the objection period raising two issues. Responses to the issues raised in the objections are set out below.

The EADRA levy process should better reflect industry developments and the risks posed by free range production 

There has been significant industry change since the EADRA agreement was first entered into, including the expansion of free range production and the increased prevalence of avian influenza in wild waterbirds globally. While there remain significant biosecurity risks across all production systems, the nature of free range production is that there are additional points of connection to wild waterbirds compared to other systems. 

The EADR levy process forms part of commitments the egg industry has made as a signatory to the Emergency Animal Diseases Response Agreement. These commitments were in place at the time the avian influenza incident arose in May 2024 and it is not possible to revisit the structure of those commitments retrospectively. Levies are currently imposed on the whole industry and the system does not currently provide for levies to be imposed on particular segments of the industry such as cage, barn or free range farming systems.

The objective of EADRA is to provide benefits to the entire egg industry by providing a balance of incentives to ensure best practice biosecurity is in place and emergency diseases are promptly reported. These arrangements position authorities and the industry to response to incidents effectively, contain their spread and return the industry to freedom from emergency animal diseases. By participating in this process, all egg farming businesses invest in protecting their business and the sustainability of the egg industry. Any future reforms would need to consider appropriate arrangements for levies to be imposed that were consistent with the objective of EADRA. 

Salmonella enteritidis should be included in the compensation arrangements under EADRA 

There has been a longstanding disparity between processes for responding to avian influenza and salmonella enteritidis incidents in the egg industry. With compensation available for avian influenza only under EADRA, it is understandable that there is a perceived inequity in the outcomes for egg farms impacted by SE. 

It is a key principle of the EADRA arrangements that emergency animal diseases are not present in Australia and are likely to be irradicable. This presents a challenge in considering compensation arrangements for salmonella enteritidis incidents as the prevalence of SE in Australia is uncertain. After a cluster of incidences in 2018 and 2019, there have been further detections in recent years, suggesting that SE may be present in the environment. 

The status of salmonella enteritidis in Australia would need to be explored in further detail to determine that it is not present before the expansion of the EADRA arrangements could be considered. In the meantime, EADRA will continue to enhance the sustainability of the egg industry by providing arrangements for responding to emergency animal diseases. 

It is expected that the Minister will progress with the increase of the EADR Levy as proposed.

IRB Consultation

Australian Eggs works closely with egg industry representative bodies (IRBs) to ensure it has the benefit of industry knowledge and egg farmer feedback.

The main IRBs that Australian Eggs has close contact with are:

• Egg Farmers of Australia
• Queensland United Egg Producers
• Commercial Egg Producers of Western Australia
• Commercial Egg Farmers of South Australia and Tasmania
• New South Wales Farmers Egg Committee
• Victorian Farmers Federation Egg Group

Australian Eggs is also open to engaging with other IRBs that are currently operating or may form from time to time.

Australian Eggs’ engagement with IRBs is conducted in both a formal and informal basis. In preparation of the current Annual Operating Plan, Australian Eggs engaged with IRBs to report on activities to date and outline how the Strategic Plan would be brought to life through refinement of the marketing and research, development and extension activities. This included the incorporation of insights from the Australian Egg Industry Sustainability Framework into the Australian Eggs work program to ensure that priority issues identified by the public could be progressed.

This consultation revealed broad support for Australian Eggs’ strategic direction with emphasis placed on addressing recent Salmonella Enteritidis incidents through extension activities and further research.

In terms of informal engagement, Australian Eggs maintains regular contact with IRB representatives on emerging industry issues. For example, Australian Eggs operates informal consultation groups on specific issues including anti-microbial stewardship, industry statistics and export activities, and many IRB representatives participate in these processes across the year. Australian Eggs also responds to IRB requests for outputs that are consistent with our activities, such as the Salmonella Risk Assessment Toolkit. 

There is a significant degree of overlap between the representatives on IRBs and egg farmers such that IRB representatives have the benefit of a range of Australian Eggs’ engagement activities such as periodical and electronic newsletters, attendance at forums, participation in workshops and participation in industry consultative committees.