Brown eggs are disappearing from Dutch supermarket shelves, partly because the German preference for cheaper and more sustainable white eggs is becoming the norm, the Telegraaf reported on Tuesday.

According to Henner Schönecke, the chairman of the German egg producers association, white hens, which lay mostly white eggs, live longer and are more productive.

It makes sense that white eggs will push the brown ones from the shelves, farm economics expert Peter van Horne told the paper. “Half of all Dutch eggs go to Germany and they want white eggs. It’s mostly because they are some 9% cheaper. It really doesn’t matter to the Germans if they are brown or white as long as they are cheaper,” he said.

The Dutch too, will want to pay less for their eggs, he said. “Consumers may grumble a bit because they think brown eggs are more natural or more animal friendly, but that stems from the time when free-range were brown and battery eggs white,” he said.

White hens have been bred to be smaller and lighter and to lay more eggs. They produce some 450 eggs in 18 months compared to brown hens which lay 380, Van Horne said. They also eat less which means they produce less unwanted CO2.

White hens are also less aggressive towards other hens and that increases animal welfare. “I really can’t think of a single argument in favour of brown eggs over white,” he said.

Lidl has been selling white eggs, provided by environmentally friendly egg producers Kipster for years while most of the eggs sold by market leader Albert Heijn are also white.

The supermarket giant will sell only white eggs in future to contribute to the company’s aim to reduce greenhouse gases by 45% compared to 2018, a spokesman for the supermarket chain said.

Chicken farmers’ union NVP commented that supermarkets favour white eggs but that chicken farmers don’t care one way or the other. “I couldn’t care less, we deliver what the market demands,” chairman Bart-Jan Oplaat commented.