欧洲鸡蛋涨价 复活节彩蛋“伤不起”

'Tis the season to paint Easter eggs in Europe. Now children, listen: Handle with care, they break easily — and this year there are not too many about so they are very expensive.

Demand for eggs traditionally reaches its peak around the Easter holiday. This year, the egg industry has been hit by the European Union's new requirements for bigger, more animal-friendly cages for hens. The changes it brings have affected production and, combined with high feed cost, boosted consumer prices.

Ahead of Easter Sunday, on April 8 or 15 depending on the religious denomination, it makes for a costly tradition on a continent where millions have grown up painting or dyeing eggs as children and are now facing economic crisis.

At Warsaw's Hala Mirowska market, the egg sales of Jacek Bechcicki are down as he faces customers grumbling about high prices. "The holiday will be poorer for some of my customers," Bechcicki said.

Pekka Pesonen used to color and dye eggs as a kid in his native Finland. As a rite of spring, "it was a celebration of new life," he remembers. Now, Pesonen is secretary general of a major European farm federation and is seeing how the new EU legislation has put a damper on this Easter season.

"Obviously it has had an impact," he said.

The European Egg Processors Association says that EU-wide production of eggs since the Jan. 1 legislative change has dropped by 10 to 15 percent, or about 200 million eggs a week.

Prices have sometimes tripled on international markets over the past month, peaking at over 2 euros ($2.60) per kilogram, said Philip Van Bosstraeten of Ovobel, an international company which makes equipment for egg processing.

The European Commission said that overall the price for table eggs in early March was 55 percent higher compared to the previous year.

在欧洲，现在是绘制复活节彩蛋的时节了。但是，孩子们，听好了：拿鸡蛋要小心，它们很容易碎，而且今年没有太多鸡蛋，所以它们很贵。

传统上对鸡蛋的需求在复活节前后达到高峰。今年，鸡蛋产业因为欧盟要求给母鸡提供更大、更好用的笼子的新规定而受到了冲击。这一规定带来的改变已经对鸡蛋生产造成了影响，再加上高饲养成本，使得消费价格上涨了。

复活节是4月8日或15日，时间依具体教派而定。复活节前，欧洲大陆上有数百万民众将绘制彩蛋，他们从小到大都这么做，然而如今他们面临着经济危机，鸡蛋价格的上涨也使绘制彩蛋成了一个昂贵的传统。

在华沙的哈拉米罗夫斯卡市场，杰克•贝克西基的鸡蛋生意很冷清，因为顾客们抱怨鸡蛋价格太高。贝克西基说：“对于我的一些顾客而言，这个节日将会过得比较惨淡。”

佩卡•培松嫩小时候在他的故乡芬兰时曾经给鸡蛋涂颜料、染色。他回忆说，作为春天的一种仪式，“这是对新生命的庆祝”。如今，培松嫩是一个大型欧洲农场联盟的秘书长，他发现欧盟的这一新法规已经让复活节的气氛变得黯淡。

他说：“显然新法规已经产生了影响。”

欧洲鸡蛋加工商协会称，自从1月1日法规作出改变后，欧盟范围内的鸡蛋生产量已经下降了10%到15%，也就是每周减少约2亿个鸡蛋。

生产鸡蛋加工设备的跨国公司Ovobel的菲利普•凡•伯斯特雷腾说，在过去一个月里，国际市场上的鸡蛋价格有时甚至涨到原来的三倍，最高每公斤超过了2欧元（合2.6美元）。

欧盟委员会称，三月初食用蛋的价格总体上比去年上涨了55%。