Sainsbury’s is stocking shell eggs imported from Spain and Italy. The barn eggs are being sold under the Atlante brand in mixed weight boxes.
The retailer said it had been forced to look abroad for eggs in order to meet its cage-free commitment, due to a large rise in demand during the pandemic.
Last autumn Sainsbury’s announced plans to offer only free-range eggs from April this year, but the pandemic forced it to backtrack on its plans.
The supermarket usually sells around 800 million eggs a year – a total of 2.2 million eggs every day.
Recent figures from Kantar Worldpanel show sales of free range eggs have grown by 12% over the last year, adding over £10 million in value, while sales of barn and cage eggs have declined over the same period.