李明輝 供稿

Its 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. The egg industry had been hit by the European Unions 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 Warsaws 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.

在歐洲，現(xiàn)在是繪制復(fù)活節(jié)彩蛋的時節(jié)了。但是，孩子們，聽好了：拿雞蛋要小心，它們很容易碎，而且今年沒有太多雞蛋，所以它們很貴。

傳統(tǒng)上對雞蛋的需求在復(fù)活節(jié)前后達到高峰。雞蛋產(chǎn)業(yè)因為歐盟要求給母雞提供更大、更好用的籠子的新規(guī)定而受到了沖擊。這一規(guī)定帶來的改變已經(jīng)對雞蛋生產(chǎn)造成了影響，再加上高飼料成本，使得消費價格上漲了。

復(fù)活節(jié)是4月8日或15日，時間依具體教派而定。復(fù)活節(jié)前，歐洲大陸上有數(shù)百萬民眾將繪制彩蛋，他們從小到大都是這么做的，然而如今他們面臨著經(jīng)濟危機，雞蛋價格的上漲也使繪制彩蛋成了一個昂貴的傳統(tǒng)。

在華沙的哈拉米羅夫斯卡市場，杰克·貝克西基的雞蛋生意很冷清，因為顧客們抱怨雞蛋價格太高。貝克西基說：“對于我的一些顧客而言，這個節(jié)日將會過得比較慘淡?！?/p>

佩卡·培松嫩小時候在他的故鄉(xiāng)芬蘭時曾經(jīng)給雞蛋涂顏料、染色。他回憶說，作為春天的一種儀式，“這是對新生命的慶祝”。如今，培松嫩是一個大型歐洲農(nóng)場聯(lián)盟的秘書長，他發(fā)現(xiàn)歐盟的這一新法規(guī)已經(jīng)讓復(fù)活節(jié)的氣氛變得黯淡。

他說：“顯然新法規(guī)已經(jīng)產(chǎn)生了影響?！?/p>

歐洲雞蛋加工商協(xié)會稱，自從1月1日法規(guī)作出改變后，歐盟范圍內(nèi)的雞蛋生產(chǎn)量已經(jīng)下降了10%到15%，也就是每周減少約2億個雞蛋。

生產(chǎn)雞蛋加工設(shè)備的跨國公司Ovobel的菲利普·凡·伯斯特雷騰說，在過去一個月里，國際市場上的雞蛋價格有時甚至漲到原來的三倍，最高每公斤超過了2歐元（合2.6美元）。

歐盟委員會稱，三月初食用蛋的價格總體上比去年上漲了55%。

（李明輝 供稿）