Last week, I read an article that an egg-production facility in Cokato, Minnesota, went up in flames. The facility produces upwards of six million eggs a day. Tragically, tens of thousands of hens died.
This fire is yet another nail in the coffin of egg availability. Bird flu panic has caused millions upon millions of chickens to be culled, creating shortages and price increases like crazy.
Additionally, the state of Georgia has halted all poultry-related activities due to bird flu concerns. This means all "in-state poultry exhibitions, shows, swaps, meets, and sales are suspended until further notice," with a corresponding massive ripple effect over multiple industries.
Now the prognosis is that egg prices will stay elevated forever. Seems a little pessimistic, but there you go.
The shortages (and elevated prices) have hit locally as well. A couple weeks ago while in our local grocery store, I saw this:
The less expensive eggs were cleaned out, while the pricier ones remained.
We seldom buy eggs, since we keep them on hand mostly for baking. But for those who depend on eggs for an inexpensive source of protein, these prices and shortages must be hitting hard.
We're hoping to get a coop built and start a flock of chickens this summer. In the meantime, when we need eggs, I'm grateful we can buy them from the nice older couple down the road who usually charges $3.50 a dozen.
Last week, eggs were $9.49 at Publix in Birmingham, AL. This week they were $5.40/doz, cheaper than Aldi.
ReplyDeleteEggs in San Diego are very expensive as well, averaging about $9 a dozen, even at the bargain chains. Thankful for my small flock, and eagerly awaiting their spring production increase. They're getting lots of extras these days in preparation for their ramp up. KinCa
ReplyDeleteI'm bummed. I love eating eggs any time of the day, but what can you do? They're still cheaper than many other things. Keeping chickens is not an option for me.
ReplyDeleteI went shopping last night & decided to look at the eggs. We have our own flock that provides for us, our children, some neighbors & a few to sell @ $4/dzn.
ReplyDeleteThe lower priced eggs were cleaned out. I saw $6.29-$7.49/dzn sitting on the shelf.
Debbie in MA
Do a search on how many food processing plants have had fires. It's astounding! One has to ask who is behind this.
ReplyDeleteI just bought a dozen eggs at Aldi and paid $5.03 for them. I had two scrambled eggs this morning and within an hour, I was sick as a dog. TMI for sure but noteworthy. This never happened to me before but I think I'm going to stop eating eggs for a while. The eggs this morning were fully cooked. Nonetheless, I got ill.
ReplyDeleteWe had a similar experience with store bought eggs last week, it was a 5 dozen pack purchased at Costco. We rarely eat actual eggs cooked, usually just use them in baking, but we scrambled a bunch for a breakfast dinner meal, fully cooked, me and my 2 kids got a horrible intestinal bug just hours after eating them. We didn't assume it was the eggs, but then a few days later we cooked some up again and had the exact same thing happen, and nobody had left the house, so we never picked up an infection anywhere else. A couple people I know who have purchased eggs from other local stores in the last couple weeks have had similar things happen to them, so we too are now avoiding all store bought eggs, just using powdered dried eggs we had on hand for baking projects.
DeleteStore brand eggs here in the Central Valley of California were $8.99 last week for a dozen and $13.49 for 18.
ReplyDeleteThanks to Granny-Gavin-Newsom for the new California state law that started Jan 1st requiring any eggs sold in the state to be sourced from cage-free chickens. Why is nyone surprised by the hike in prices??
SJ now in California
2.4 million egg chickens culled due to bird flu in Neosho MO. There even culling plants near by with negative test results. The definition of overkill...
ReplyDeleteWent to walmart yesterday and the 5 dozen box was $28 plus. I got that box a week or so ago for $7 less.
ReplyDeleteWhat I do is glove up, then put some pure mineral oil (in pharmacy section) on my gloved hands, and oil each egg, replacing them in the carton bottoms up. Flip them weekly. I've had refrigerated eggs to last 4 months that way and they might have been fine longer but they'd all been used up. At that time I had bought 2 5dozen cartons.
If you choose to buy that large carton check dates on carton, because yesterday those big cartons were about all that were left and it looks like they're accumulating. If you're going to store them in the fridge you want the freshest eggs.
You may think the current price is too expensive, and it is. However it's protein and it looks like all protein rich foods are likely to zoom pdq.