Egg shortage cause restaurants to increases prices

The egg and poultry related scares are growing exponentially in the US. The impact of last year’s avian flu on the egg production has been quite negative for the restaurants and the consumers ultimately. As a result of the flu, eggs have grown scarce and expensive which has forced many restaurants and sellers to raise their prices. This price rise happened restaurants are themselves buying the eggs at increased rates. According to the industry analyst group, Urner Barry, the price of eggs has increased tremendously and has more than doubled to $2.62. The increase in price basically occurs when there is a shortage and a scarcity of goods which is the case here. The Department of Agriculture, in its forecast, reported egg production of 609 billion for the year 2015, which is 5.3 per cent lower than what was produced in 2014.

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In an interview to AP, many restaurant owners said that they were contemplating passing on the higher costs to customers as the pricier eggs eat into their profit margins. On the other hand there are some restaurants that are taking the egg dishes completely off their menus and are waiting for things to get back to normal. Others such as Texas-based Whattaburger are trying other methods to manage egg consumption such as reducing the window when customers can order items with eggs.

The prices of eggs have increased recently but the industry related officials are hopeful that the production could return to normal in the span of two years if everything goes right. Earlier, the avian flu had disastrously affected the population of the birds as 48 million of them were lost to it. Other countries also have banned the import of US chicken so that the flu would not spread in their own markets. This has helped the domestic market and helped the officials to focus on the needs of the country first. Now, it is estimated that every year US needs 300 million chickens that lay close to 90 billion eggs. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention assured the people that there is a very low risk of this virus strain’s infecting the humans.