A Whangarei egg producer managed to dupe consumers by passing off caged eggs as free range despite the Ministry of Primary Industries doing annual checks on his operation.
The Poultry Industry Association NZ said John Garnett's offending was the first in Northland as far as its records showed but a similar offence of deliberate deception was recorded in 2001.
The association's executive director Michael Brooks said another case popped up in Wairarapa some time after 2001 but the egg producer had errors in records rather than deliberately misled his customers. He was nonetheless fined because it amounted to misleading, he said.
Garnett's offending was the first such case in 10 years, he said.
"So it's very, very rare. The other thing people should understand is that every commercial egg farmer has to have a risk management plan because they supply to supermarkets."