Egg crisis in the supermarket looms: Great Britain is already rationing sales

Created: 11/29/2022, 12:10 p.m

By: Marc Dimitriu

Fresh organic eggs are stacked on pallets.

Poultry farmers expect egg prices to continue to rise in Germany.

© Matthias Bein/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa

Bird flu is rampant in Europe and food prices are rising.

This is causing an egg shortage in the UK.

Germany is also threatened.

Neu Wulmstorf/Berlin – Are we going to run out of eggs soon?

In Great Britain it is already so far.

The island is running out of eggs due to bird flu and rising production costs.

Supermarkets are therefore already rationing sales.

The catering industry is also affected.

A company spokesman for the pub chain JD Wetherspoons said that egg dishes have been eliminated or replaced with other foods in some branches.

"We are struggling to get the supplies we need to meet demand in all the pubs." Poultry prices have risen enormously.

The farmers' association NFU called on the Ministry of the Environment to investigate the supply chain problems.

There is a threat of egg shortages: Avian flu means there are fewer laying hens

Now we could face similar problems.

Because the bird flu is currently rampant throughout Europe like never before and is causing a lower population of laying hens.

Poultry farmers therefore expect further increases in egg prices in Germany.

According to the producers' estimates, the cheaper barn eggs in particular are likely to become more expensive before Christmas.

“It will most likely be scarce for cheap eggs,” said the President of the Central Association of the German Poultry Industry, Friedrich-Otto Ripke.

In the case of the more expensive eggs from organic farming or from free-range farming, however, he does not currently expect the goods to become scarce.

Recently, customers have been very price-sensitive due to high inflation and have tended to buy cheaper goods.

Eggs in Germany soon scarce?

High feed costs and ban on chick killing increases prices

But other factors are also responsible for an increase in egg prices: Because of the high feed costs, many companies have reduced their livestock, according to industry information.

After all, the phasing out of chick killing caused prices for pullets to rise sharply, said Ripke: "The pullet price has doubled."

Because of bird flu, countries like the Netherlands could no longer supply enough barn eggs.

According to Ripke, the degree of self-sufficiency in shell eggs in Germany is just over 70 percent.

The rest is imported and 70 percent comes from the Netherlands.

The lower number of laying hens is currently meeting a strong global demand for eggs, said the chairman of the Federal Egg Association, Henner Schönecke: "It is the case that the Americans in Europe are currently buying eggs because they do not have enough themselves." Everyone thinks about it producer where he sells his eggs.

This could mean that certain eggs are missing from the range in food retail.

Situations like in the United Kingdom, where sales were sometimes limited to small quantities, are not to be expected in Germany for the time being.

Scarcity not only for barn eggs: Free-range eggs may also be affected in 2023

Because the chicks were not killed, egg prices had already risen by two cents per egg last year.

This year there will be another increase of two cents per egg due to the increased feed costs.

"The cheapest eggs today are 1.99 euros per ten pieces," said Schönecke.

Because of the avian influenza and the associated stall requirement for laying hens in the affected regions, it is to be expected that free-range eggs will also become scarcer in the new year.

(md with dpa)