The United States is facing a national spike in egg prices due to a years-long avian flu outbreak affecting nearly two million birds in Washington State. The public health risk remains low, but local farmers are feeling the pressure.
Alyssa Link, owner of Palouse-based chicken farm Link’d Hearts Ranch, said she noticed people buying more eggs around the start of February.
“For the first time ever, I had a customer that wanted to get multiple dozens. It would have completely cleaned me out and I knew there were other customers still coming,” she said. “Before they could even leave my booth, the next person showed up and wanted eggs.”
Link said her egg prices may need to go up in response to the supply shock.
“I cannot guarantee price stability for the year,” Link said. “In the past I have.”
Link has been monitoring the outbreak through forums with the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association and updates from the United States Department of Agriculture and Washington State Department of Agriculture.
“The things that I’m looking for in those announcements are where outbreaks are occurring geographically and understanding where larger production areas are for where they’re breeding the chickens that lay the eggs that then go to the hatcheries that I purchase from.”
Link does not anticipate the egg shortage will get better within the next six months.
“It’s not going to get better. Not for a little while. I think it’s actually going to get a little worse before it gets better,” she said.
Denise Wetzel, who helps her son with his farm ReMARKable Eggs in Moscow, said the biggest impact she has seen from avian flu is increased demand. ReMARKable had to raise prices in January, but not because of avian flu but inflation.
She said they considered raising prices but will not.
“I’ve talked to other people, and they said we should raise [prices] again because of the bird flu, but we’re not planning on doing that,” Wetzel said. “I mean there’s no reason to take advantage of the situation.”
Wetzel is concerned about the flu, saying geese droppings can also spread the flu to unprotected chickens.
“I’m very concerned about it because we live in an area where there’s a lot of wild geese that fly over, and they can be one of the carriers of the bird flu,” Wetzel said. “We’re always concerned about it because we have all our chickens there. They have a coop but then they spend a good amount of time outside, because they’re pastured, so there’s no protection from droppings that would come from the geese.”
