ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) — Avian influenza has plagued U.S.-based egg-laying farms since 2022, particularly during the winter.
“Avian flu does not care,” said host of WFXR’s ‘On the Farm,’ George Noleff. “It’ll hit wherever it wants to hit. Hopefully, we can eventually mitigate the spread but right now, it doesn’t look like that’s happening.”
The result is less eggs to go around and ultimately, higher egg prices.
“I don’t see [prices] coming down for a while,” said Noleff. “You’ve got too much shortage to bridge right now. You’ve got to wait for these other birds to come online and you’ve got people who still want to buy eggs, who still need eggs.”
Virginia Tech agriculture professor Michael Persia says prices have typically peaked in January, fresh off the high demand for the holidays and the migration patterns of infected birds coming from South and Central America.
The reason the virus is so critical is because of how quickly it can spread.
If one bird is infected, the entire flock has to be killed.
New chickens are hatched in their place, but it takes four-to-five months for them to reach egg-laying age.
That puts supply behind demand, impacting grocery stores, restaurants, and ultimately the consumer.
“The cost of eggs has had a big effect on our bottom line,” said Garry Fleming, owner of the popular Scrambled restaurant in Roanoke. “But unlike households, who can choose to buy fewer eggs, or none at all, we can’t do that.”
So far, Scrambled has held strong from raising prices, but eventually, that could have to change.
“So far, we have not increased our menu prices to reflect these higher costs, but at some point, we won’t have any choice other than raising the prices of our egg dishes,” said Fleming.
Grocery stores are facing the same decisions.
The Roanoke Co+Op said they have not had to raise prices yet either, because they get most of their eggs from local suppliers.
However, they are not convinced that they will be immune from the price hikes forever.
“Over time, I think what we’ll see is probably demand on locally produced or smaller farms will go up,” said Roanoke Co+Op marketing director John Bryant. “So I do expect that to change at some point.”