The amounts of eggs imported from Ukraine are low, but the symbol is strong. The Minister of Agriculture, Annie Ginevard, reacted on Friday to the alerts of the interprofession of eggs on the presence of Ukrainian eggs in French supermarkets by asking for strengthening controls and preventing the importation of products that contain prohibited substances in the European Union.
The interprovery of the eggs (CNPO) alerted Thursday about the importation of certain distribution brands of hundreds of thousands of Ukraine eggs, which do not meet European standards in the cage in the cage and the grinding of male chicks in France. “Food sovereignty is to favor French production to food imports that do not meet our standards or expectations of consumers,” said the Minister of Agriculture to the press.
The CNPO goes further by indicating that these eggs could contain prohibited antibiotics in Europe. Four checks, made of Ukrainian eggs exported to Slovakia and Poland in the last two months before being potentially re -exported in the rest of the EU, have revealed the presence of such substances, considered dangerous to health. These analyzes did not take place in France, where the CNPO also warns that the controls are insufficient.
After acetamipride debate
“I ask for greater surveillance in terms of health controls in our territory. This strengthening of controls must be done, above all, at European level: now I provide this request to the European Commission,” Annie Ginevard reacted. “We must also go further with a simple principle: for any prohibited practice in Europe, a maximum limit of waste related to these practices set at any imported product,” he adds.
This statement echoes the recent debates about the importation of products that have been cultivated using acetamipride, a pesticide whose reintroduction was censored by the Constitutional Council in its decision on the Dupber Law. Agricultural unions have called to favor French products and prohibit imports of treated products according to them with Acetamipride, a complicated measure because the substance is still authorized to European scale until 2033. The minister had declared that she would bring to the Brussels, without giving details.
The CNPO says that an E. Leclerc brand in Rouen offered many 300,000 Ukrainian eggs, sold 5.65 euros per 30 -egg brochure, much cheaper than French eggs. “A store had an unfortunate initiative,” E. Leclerc admitted in a statement sent to AFP on Thursday, adding that it was “an isolated case, which does not correspond absolutely to the brand’s purchase policy.” According to the brand, the lot must withdraw from the sale.
These 300,000 eggs will be compared with the seven billion eggs consumed last year in France, which occur in the vast majority produced in the national territory, imports, mainly from the EU, mainly due to the food industry. Given the increase in egg consumption, tensions have arisen in the shares since the beginning of the year and certain shelves have emptied, sometimes under the effect of the precautionary purchases of worried consumers.
58 tons of Ukraine eggs in 2024
“Sales increased by 5% in volume this year (at the end of July) compared to 2024, or about 350 million eggs more compared to the 7 billion last year. We could respond and provide mass distribution,” said the AFP Yves-Marie Beaudet, president of CNPO. Imports of Eggs of Ukrainian breeding poultry have also fallen since 2023, the last year of the avian flu episode that had devastated French chickens.
In 2023, France had imported 411 tons of Ukrainian eggs in poultry, in shells, costs, for a value of 844,792 euros, according to customs figures. In 2024, only 58 tons were imported for 115,264 euros. During the first five months of 2025, about 13 tons were imported, the equivalent of around 185,000 eggs of 70 grams … or even a hundredth of the eggs consumed by the French in one day.
Source: BFM TV
