Where did all the eggs go?
If you’ve been grocery shopping the past several weeks, especially at some of the larger chains, you’ve probably noticed a lot of empty egg shelves. However, if you shop at stores carrying our eggs, you’ve hopefully seen that our Petaluma Egg Farm eggs were in stock. While we haven’t been able to fully keep up with the demand for eggs in every instance, we’ve worked hard with our retail partners to make sure they have eggs on the shelf. That’s evidence of the local advantage at work. We believe your food should have as few food miles on it as possible, which is not only more sustainable but also allows us to respond more quickly. Plus, we believe local farmers like us simply care more about their hens and their customers than the big guys.
There are two compounding factors affecting egg supply in California – Prop 12 and Avian Influenza (AI). Last year, a new California law went into effect requiring that all eggs sold in California must be cage free. We’ve always been cage free, but many farmers were not, so this immediately limited the available supply of eggs for California. In 2022, we also had the first outbreak of AI that continues today, leading to the death of over 40 million laying hens in the U.S. In addition, there are now outbreaks of AI all over the world, and since the U.S. both imports and exports eggs, this has placed further strain on egg supply. When you combine these factors with a time of year when people are buying lots of eggs for baking and family get-togethers, demand has simply outstripped supply, leading to shortages and high egg prices.
I wish I knew when this would all be over, but I can at least tell you what experts have told me. The optimists hope that AI will be gone by summer, but there’s no way to know for sure. If farmers don't encounter too many more issues with AI, then the expectation is that egg supply will begin to return to somewhat normal levels with the start of the new year.
This may all sound like bad news, but here’s the good news – We have eggs! If you don’t know where to find our eggs, just send us a note using this link and we'll get back to you right away with some store locations near you. You can also visit our farm store in Petaluma called Skippy’s Egg Store. Thank you for supporting our hens, our team members, and our family.
