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Egg producer rolls out £2.4m AI grading equipment
The investment will include building alterations and will create 10 new jobs for the business to help deal with the increased number of eggs processed on site.
Farmlay’s new system will be shipped over from the Sanovo Technology Group factory in Holland and will be able to grade 400 cases per hour – almost double the company’s current output.
It will utilise advanced algorithms and deep learning techniques to analyse high-resolution images of eggs, enabling them to differentiate between normal eggs and those with cracks. It can also detect variations in colour, texture and shape – all the time absorbing new data to become ever-more proficient.
Long-term solution
Iain Chapman, Farmlay managing director, said: “We were at a crossover as to whether – with demand for eggs at such a high – to simply run our existing grader longer hours. However, doing that wouldn’t have been a long-term solution and could have been risky with no back up machine if there was a problem.
“We have been keenly watching the research and development going on and the Sanovo machine we are getting has been proven to be amazingly efficient, using AI to analyse high-resolution images of the eggs.”
Farmlay’s investment follows a period of growth in the retail egg market. According to Kantar Worldpanel data, between 2004 and 2023 retail egg sales increased by more than 20%, with 18- to 44-year-olds driving sales in particular.
Egg consumption
Overall, consumption has risen from 1.6 eggs per person per week to 2.1 eggs per person per week, equating to 110 eggs per person – a rise of almost 30 eggs a year. Free range sales have risen sharply and now represent almost 75% of retail egg sales.
“There is a real buzz about eating eggs, with lots of posts on social media platforms such as Instagram with celebrities talking about how they are a healthy way of getting protein into the diet,” said Chapman. “There are definitely more young people eating eggs now than there have been for a very long time.”
Meanwhile, peanut butter brand ManiLife has announced plans to open a £1m production facility in Shirebrook, Derbyshire.
