The group gathered outside Shadow Minister for Primary Industries and Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison's office to urge her to rethink her position on the caged egg industry.

It comes after the NSW Labor Party chose not to support a 10-year phase out of the battery hen industry, following a recommendation from a state parliamentary committee.

"Labor has backflipped on this, they had committed to a long-term phase out to ensure that there would be a transition period to allow farmers to change their ways," Animal Justice Party's Newcastle Hunter Regional Group leader Darren Brollo said.

"We feel with enough pressure that they could reverse their decision - there were over 14,000 submissions to parliament with community concerns about battery cages in NSW."

Ms Aitchison said she didn't buy eggs very often, but when she did, she sourced them from local farmers or friends who had chooks.

She said Woolworths and Coles had already committed to phasing out selling caged eggs and statistics showed consumer habits were already changing.

"If we stop production of caged eggs in NSW it disadvantages our farmers because other farmers in Australia can still sell caged eggs into our market, and we're in a big drought, so it's not a good time to do it," Ms Aitchison said.

"The other thing is that we need low cost sources of protein in our diets, and eggs are one of those.

"Consumption of caged eggs has gone from about 75 per cent down to about 45 per cent so there has been a change in consumer habits."

Mr Brollo urged shoppers concerned about the welfare of hens to choose wisely when they bought eggs at the supermarket.