The leading French eggs association has sounded alarm over the import of hundreds of thousands of eggs from Ukraine, warning they breach with European production standards and may contain banned antibiotics.
Since spring, several batches of eggs from Ukraine with a code 3 -- meaning the hens are battery caged -- have been seen in various French supermarkets, said the National Committee for the Promotion of Eggs (CNPO) in a statement late Thursday.
The eggs were spotted at giant retailers Carrefour and E. Leclerc, according to the CNPO, which unites all the major players in the French egg industry.
"One store took a regrettable action," admitted E. Leclerc in a statement, adding that this was "an isolated case, which absolutely does not correspond to the brand's purchasing policy."
"As soon as we became aware of this case, we asked the store concerned to immediately withdraw the items from sale," the group said.
Carrefour, which was already criticised by the industry in June after a video by an agricultural union showed eggs from Ukraine in one of the group's stores, told AFP on Thursday that it "does not sell any eggs of Ukrainian origin".
Faced with the increase in egg consumption, as a popular protein of animal origin in times of inflation, tensions in stocks have emerged since the beginning of the year.
"Sales have increased by five percent compared to 2024, or around 350 million more eggs compared to last year's seven billion. We have been able to respond and supply the major retailers," CNPO president Yves-Marie Beaudet told AFP.
"If we import a little from Spain or Italy, it stays within the European Union. But when we go to Ukraine, whose standards are not in line with European regulations, it's simply not possible," he added.
He acknowledged that the 300,000 eggs he said were recently imported by E. Leclerc represented a very small quantity, but expressed fear "it may be a test" aimed at obtaining supplies at a lower cost.
According to the CNPO, the eggs from Ukraine do not comply with European regulations on battery cage farming.
It added that they also breach with the French industry's agreement on ovosexing, which avoids the now-banned crushing of male chicks by detecting the sex in the egg using expensive technology, nor with standards regarding antibiotics.
