Colorado shoppers looking for eggs often find shelves empty or overturned, as both avian flu and a new state law have disrupted supermarket supply chains.
Highly pathogenic avian flu, a highly contagious virus that can kill poultry, is the main culprit for the shortages, said Scott Scarborough, owner and head farmer of City Farm LLC in Montrose.
He also pointed to a new state law requiring all eggs sold in grocery stores and produced on Colorado farms to be cage-free. As demand for cage-free eggs skyrocketed after the mandate took effect on Jan. 1, “this is compounding the problem,” said Scarborough, who uses both free range and rangeland approaches. “Not many people are making cage-free eggs.”
Last week, Scarborough noticed empty shelves in his Western Slope community. Grocery stores with eggs in stock placed limits on how many customers could buy.
He predicted that the restricted supply could last until 2023. “It’s not going to get much better next year.”
Why is the country’s egg supply tight? Am I paying more for eggs?
Since February, flocks of chickens across the country have suffered outbreaks of avian flu.
As a result, nearly 40 million chickens died or were culled — a 5% drop in flock size last November compared to the same month in 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. Last year, the agency confirmed cases of the virus in 46 states, including Colorado.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service first detected its presence in the state in April, in a non-commercial backyard flock in Pitkin County. State officials quarantined and euthanized the birds, reports the US Department of Agriculture.
Mike Tomko, spokesman for the American Farm Bureau Federation, named Colorado as “one of the states hardest hit” by the virus, particularly on the egg front.
“More than 6 million birds were affected in total in 2022, with the last commercial detection in Colorado affecting just under 1.3 million layers in December,” said Tomko.
The lobby group stops short of calling it an “egg shortage,” but “general egg supplies are still in short supply.”
Scarborough reflected on his farm, which includes a pond with hundreds of geese. As the virus is transmitted predominantly to domestic birds via wild waterfowl, he can only hope that “none of these geese have contracted the virus”.
If his herd becomes infected, he will be forced to “depopulate” it. “You’re looking at about 40 weeks after a barn is depopulated before it goes back into production again,” Scarborough said.
If that happens to him, he might be forced to throw in the towel. “It’s kind of scary. I try not to think about it too much.”
During the holiday season, consumer demand for eggs has increased, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Overview of Egg Markets. The winter storm that hit much of the country before Christmas played a role in temporarily curbing this trend, but as shoppers return to stores, “eggs remain at the top of their shopping lists.”
The report described supplies as “light to moderate” but increasingly available, while demand is considered “moderate to good”, with businesses focused on restocking.
Other causes of rising egg prices include consumer demand, exports and food price inflation, said Olga Robak, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Agriculture.
“At current price levels, eggs are not one of the lowest cost protein alternatives.”
Nationally, prices for big-shell, white, free-range eggs have dropped from $0.63 to $4.12 per dozen, but that’s not the case in all US regions, according to the Eggs Overview. December 30 egg markets.
The Midwestern wholesale cost jumped from $0.23 to $5.30 per dozen, and a dozen in California soared from $0.90 to $7.50.
What is going on in Colorado that is affecting your egg supply?
A state law requiring all eggs sold in Colorado grocery stores to be cage-free went into effect Jan. 1. Colorado Department of Agriculture.
State legislators passed House Bill 20-1343 in 2020, which requires cage-free housing with specific enclosure measures. Farm owners must now receive certifications of compliance, which include annual inspections and renewals.
But farms with 3,000 or fewer laying hens are exempt from the new rule, as are those for medical research, veterinary procedures, slaughter and more.
Austin Vincent of the Colorado Farm Bureau said the current egg supply problem is an additional consequence of “poor legislative policy” in addition to the highly pathogenic avian flu.
The state’s Farm Bureau opposed Colorado’s legislative change, “knowing it would result in fewer options and higher prices.”
“The legislature and the governor have the power to address the issue, even temporarily, to help alleviate some stress in the supply chain,” said Vincent.
Which stores are impacted?
As of Monday afternoon, only about 20 cartons of eggs were on the shelves of a Safeway on Capitol Hill in Denver. By Tuesday morning, the shelves were empty.
A few blocks away, customers at Capitol Hill’s King Soopers could choose from a dozen options, with shelves fully stocked. But reminders of the store’s recent egg shortage lingered, as price tags were still covered in stickers that read, “Sorry for the inconvenience. We will restock this item as soon as it becomes available.”
“We are starting to see the supply chain stabilize and we have removed all purchase limits,” said King Soopers spokeswoman Jessica Trowbridge.
Tricia Moriarty, a spokeswoman for Walmart, confirmed egg shortages in some Colorado locations “primarily due to the impacts of avian flu and the very high levels of demand leading up to the holidays.”
The retailer is “working diligently with our suppliers in order to stock all of our stores as quickly as possible.”
Grocery stores aren’t the only businesses feeling the pinch. Cindy Keys, director of purchasing for Snooze AM Eatery, noted that the supply of eggs “will definitely get tighter” as the cage-free law goes into effect.
Snooze, which purchased more than 8.3 million eggs in shell in 2022, has opted to supply only cage-free eggs for years – a move Keys described as “beneficial during this time as many suppliers are struggling to maintain supply.” for their existing customers and are unable to take on any new business.”
Founded in Denver, the company’s breakfast empire spans 10 states.
“We’ve had to scramble – no pun intended – to find multiple avenues to keep cage-free shell eggs in our restaurants at elevated costs of up to 125% more on the open market compared to contracted price agreements,” said Keys.
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