New data has revealed community trust in the nation's egg industry remains strong, with a significant number of Australians agreeing the sector has a lower impact on the environment compared to other industries.
The latest round of Australian Egg's Sustainability Framework Community Survey shows 85 per cent of Australians support the nation's egg industry, while 64 per cent of respondents have expressed trust in the industry to act responsibly, which has increased almost 10 per cent since 2018.
Australian Eggs Managing Director, Rowan McMonnies, who recently presented at the International Egg Conference in the Netherlands, says the results are very pleasing.
"As the industry continues to navigate changes to supply chains in the wake of Covid, the results from this year's survey shows the industry has remained steadfast and demonstrates the value of the industry to the nation," said Mr McMonnies.
"The research also presents a call to action for the industry to demonstrate it is using environmental resources responsibly. The significance of environmental management as a driver of trust has increased significantly this year reflecting increasing community interest in this area and the industry needs to demonstrate improvement in order to align with community expectations."
The survey, conducted by research company Voconiq, engaged more than 5,000 Australians, and is the fifth time the survey has been undertaken.
It forms a central part of Australian Eggs' Sustainability Framework, which aims to explore community attitudes and perceptions of the egg industry.
Voconiq CEO, Dr Kieren Moffat says the survey shows continual improvement for the industry.
"Despite community concerns and challenging conditions, public trust in the egg industry has remained strong this year and a key driver of this has been industry's responsiveness to environment and food safety practices," he said.
"Almost 70 per cent of Australians agree the industry is listening and responding through actions, which can be improved even further by aligning with community expectation."
Australian Eggs Managing Director, Rowan McMonnies says the results from the Sustainability Framework Community survey will inform change on-farm, industry research and development and policy.
"The results from these surveys assist in defining where we need to improve and where our research and development focusses need to be," he said.
Industry-wide carbon reduction is one of these focusses, with 50 per cent of the industry's carbon footprint linked to feed consumption.
"Increasing the efficiency of hen diets and identifying substitutes for higher carbon feed ingredients like soybean meal are real opportunities for the industry and are being investigated," said Mr McMonnies.
Australian Eggs is also focused on on-farm carbon reduction and has invested significantly in research to conduct carbon assessments of the supply chain.
"This body of research has found that overall, eggs remain as one of the lowest carbon animal protein which is supported by industries adaption of renewables," said Mr McMonnies.
Days Eggs, South Australia's largest egg producer, is now exploring carbon reduction and range regeneration for their farms in pursuit of improved environmental sustainability.
Days Eggs' Managing Director Dion Andary says environmental sustainability should be top of mind for all in the industry.
"We have looked at a number of different regeneration strategies and we are now testing their effectiveness across our free-range farms," he said.
"Action on environmental management is critical for the industry," said McMonnies.
"And over the next 12-month Australian Eggs will be working to ensure the community understands how environmental management is being improved across the egg industry."
