Egg Shortage
 

I think I saw my first hint that there's an egg issue. Yesterday at Trader Joe's there was a nearly empty egg display and people circling waiting for the guy to put more eggs out. I have never witnessed that before.

I happily paid my $4.50 (which is pricier than normal) but that represent 4-6 entire meals for me. You can't get a complete protein much cheaper than that.

BTW: The egg shortage is due to avian flu.

https://ktla.com/morning-news/world...ortage-problem/

DH was talking about it, but we are in a period of low-egg use. I buy from a store who uses local producers, which reassures me about their safety.

But it doesn't reassure me about the general state of our food. I understand the FDA has been getting the funding they have been starved of, so maybe this being detected before a disaster is a hopeful American thing :)

There's an egg shortage here in New Zealand at the moment too.

Caged eggs were given ten years to be phased out in 2012, so they are no longer a thing here as of the end of last year. Most suppliers adapted during that time by switching to a colony or barn model, which, while still not free-range, could still be reasonably argued as being a step-up in conditions over what there was before.

But then at the same time, several supermarkets here also recently announced that they would no longer be supplying colony eggs either, i.e. they would only be selling free-range. They probably felt like it was a clever PR move at the time, but as a result of this announcement, several suppliers have now quit the NZ market completely as it's simply not economically viable for them to operate as free-range.

This has naturally led to a sudden major supply issue, resulting in a sudden spike in egg prices, which was magnified further over the recent holiday period as people looked to bake themselves all sorts of annual traditional holiday foods.

A few weeks ago when I was staying out of town for a few days, I went to three different supermarkets in town and not a single egg was available in any of them. Since I've returned home things have improved a little in that at least there are some eggs back on the shelves, but purchase limits apply and of course they are definitely more expensive.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national...h-supply-issues

Have the businesses forgotten how to business? Sometimes I really think so.

Eggs are definitely in shorter supply and much more expensive here. It's not particularly new, either, and has been this way for many months.

It's not uncommon to see the egg cases only partially stocked and to be completely out of some brands, sizes, or quantities. But I haven't yet seen any times when they haven't had any eggs at all (though that quite possibly is happening from time to time). The prices for store-brand/generic large eggs is around $7/dz, which is more than twice what it was a year or two ago.

$7/doz?! 😱 Yikes. I thought it was bad paying $3.59 or so here. A good sale price for years used to be $1.79-1.99/doz. $2.99 is pretty good now.

Here in Ontario, the egg marketing board is lowering prices, but we probably won't see any price reduction because of inflation price gouging. :thdown:

Bird flu has struck the chicken producer in our village. He was selling at £2 a dozen. I haven't been able to get eggs from my usual spot a few miles away, but he is usually short in the depths of winter. He put his price up to £3 a dozen last winter.

The supermarkets have eggs. What is annoying is the shortage of organic chicken. Marks and Spencer have stopped selling them altogether and replaced them with "Higher Welfare" birds, whatever THAT may mean. Pray tell me what growth hormones and antibiotics you have injected them with.

I have not seen an egg shortage here. I still buy my half dozen 18-egg cartons once a month.

I think it's over now. And I do like the Vital Farms brand which comes in 18.