Aldi is the latest retailer to pledge its support for the British egg industry as it donates £12.5 million to farmers facing increased production costs such as energy and hen feed.

The UK’s fourth largest supermarket has joined Tesco and Waitrose, which have pledged £14m and £2.6m respectively, in helping British egg producers as the industry struggles with ongoing shortages thanks to spiralling costs and the current avian flu outbreak.

The pledge comes in addition to the £25.5m of support it has already provided since April 2022, bringing Aldi’s total investment in the industry to £38m by March 2023.

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While other supermarkets have sourced product from overseas to ensure they have been able to continue to stock eggs instore, Aldi has pledged that it will continue to stock only 100% British eggs in all its UK stores.

Aldi’s managing director of buying Julie Ashfield said: “We have always believed in maintaining strong, long-term relationships with our suppliers, which is why we have already invested more than £25 million in supporting our egg processors and producers this year, to help them meet the rising costs they are facing.

“Unfortunately, those challenges have not gone away, which is why we are pledging a further £12.5 million now to support the egg industry. We will continue to work with our suppliers to make sure that investment gets passed to those who need it most as quickly as possible.”

Aldi has been voted as the best UK supermarket for treating its suppliers fairly a record eight times in the Grocery Code Adjudicator’s annual survey.