America’s egg crisis is over.
Shortages are gone and there are signs of an emerging glut. U.S. prices have tumbled 75 percent from a record in August, after the biggest bird-flu outbreak ever forced farmers to destroy flocks.
With supplies returning to normal, the cost of making everything from quiches to cakes is now less than before avian influenza killed more than 35 million laying hens and the government spent $1 billion to prevent the disease from spreading.
The outbreak last year killed about a 10th of U.S. egg-layers, but farmers contained the highly contagious disease. They destroyed flocks, built fences to keep out sick birds and installed car washes to disinfect their vehicles.
The availability of baby chicks and pullets to replace lost hens “surprised virtually everyone,” and the cleanup was faster than forecast, said Chad Gregory of United Egg Producers in Alpharetta, Georgia. “It turned out to be one of the best years ever for the U.S. egg industry.”
— Bloomberg
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