Should supermarkets only sell free-range eggs?

This is a very controversial argument as it is really a question of whether we should prioritise finances or animal cruelty. This is why I believe in this situation finance is more important.

Why are free-range eggs more expensive?

Free-range eggs are more expensive because the chickens that produce must be free-range for 16 weeks so their eggs are free-range, non-free-range eggs are a lot cheaper because farmers don't need to pay for additional farmland. If farmers produce free-range eggs, they must pay for farmland for the chickens to live on, increasing the overall cost.

Imports

Because farmers have to make profit, they sell it to supermarkets for more, because of this, supermarkets are less likely to buy them, bankrupting British farmers, who are a large source of food. If Britain has less farmers there's less produce to ship to other countries, cutting off trading connections, meaning certain products won't be available if they're imported from other countries.

Cost-of-living

Linking to this last scenario, because farmers have to sell free-range eggs for more money, when supermarkets buy them ,they in turn must also pay more money for them, meaning they will sell them for more, because of the cost-of-living crisis, people are even less likely to buy them and because eggs expire 3-5 weeks after they're gathered people will have to buy them quickly before they expire. Eggs are also used for many other products such as cakes, pies, fried chicken and ice cream. This also means all of these products will increase in price.

Price increases

Another reason why supermarkets shouldn't only sell free-range eggs is because in late 2021 UK Law changed and to be free-range, the chickens that produced these had to be free-range for 16 weeks, instead of the previous 12. Coincidentally, this is around the same time that the cost-of-living crisis started, so the price increase doubled.