31. 03. 10. - 15:00

• more Germany in Focus news
• RSS Feed Germany in Focus

31. 03. 10. - 15:00

Easter egg shortage

European stores have reported a shortage of eggs in the run-up to Easter as a result of EU laws putting restrictions on the running of battery farms.

In Germany supermarkets said they would have to import up to half of their Easter eggs this year. Painted hard-boiled eggs are part of the traditional Easter celebrations in many European countries where the traditional chocolate eggs more popular in England are not sold so often.

President of the National Union of Farmers (DBV) in Germany Gerd Sonnleitner said: "With the cage ban we have lost one in five of the country's chicken population. Right now we are producing only about half of our eggs ourselves."

Many farms have given up selling eggs due to the high cost of switching over to friendlier methods of production after the January 1 ban went into effect, he explained.

To make up the difference in demand, the rest of the eggs are being imported.

Some EU countries still allow battery cages even as the practice is being phased out, and there is no ban on importing these eggs.

Meanwhile the German government defended the battery cage ban, saying it had taken a leading role in implementing the ban ahead of the European Union-wide end to battery cages set for 2012.

German Herald

Silly Moos
Police asked callers to pull the udder one - when they rang in to report a cow waiting for a train in Steinfurt, Germany.

Copycat UK Rhino Horn Thieves
A gang who tried to steal valuable rhino horns from a British museum are suspected of pulling off a similar raid in Germany just days earlier.

Porn Film Flyer
German Philipp Schultz, 37, was badly hurt after forgetting he had taken down his trousers while watching a porn film at a cinema in the Hamburg red light district and toppling head first into the row in front when he went to leave.

Home Made Heli Death
Hobby pilot Gustel Schmidt, 61, was burned to death after he crashed a helicopter he had made himself during a flight near Stuttgart, Germany.

Monks Brew-ha-ha
An order of beer-making monks have won a legal brew-ha-ha with a local dairy over just who has the right to name their products after the town.

Policemans Bull
A runaway bullock has given a team of 12 policemen and hunters the slip after it broke out of its enclosure in Neuss, Germany, and fled into surrounding woodland.

Dignitas: Suicide Numbers Up
Suicide group Dignitas has revealed a 35 per cent increase in the number of people it helped to kill themselves last year.

Moo-ve Along
Traffic stopped moo-ving on a busy road in Feuchtwangen in Germany after 31 cows escaped after the lorry they were being transported in skidded and crashed off the road.

Mum Killer
Mentally ill German woman Marcela Rainer, 34, stabbed her 8-year-old son to death as he slept in the middle of the night at the family home and then calmly walked down the road to a petrol station where she called police to tell them what she had done.

Skull And Lost Bones
Charges have been filed against three men who allegedly stole the skull of a pirate dubbed Germany's answer to Robin Hood because he stole from the wealthy merchants of the time and freely distributed the money to the poor.