Grocery stores are scrambling amid egg shortage as bird flu spreads

Eggs were hard to find at a Sprouts Farmers Market store in Redondo Beach, Calif., on Jan. 2.PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

If you’ve gone to your local grocery store for a carton of eggs lately and come home empty-handed, you’re not alone.

The region’s grocery stores are scrambling amid a shortage of the popular breakfast item, as the double whammy of avian flu outbreaks and the aftermath of the baking-heavy holiday season has left the nation’s egg supply chain snarled.

“It’s a complicated, whole series of issues that just compound each other and add to the problems everybody has in the supply chain from the beginning — from the chicken and the egg all the way up to the store shelf,” said Brian Houghton, senior vice president of government affairs and communications at the Massachusetts Food Association, a trade group for the supermarket and grocery industry.

Though the avian flu is — for now — affecting flocks mostly in California and the Midwest, Houghton said, the diminished supplies are hitting grocers in Massachusetts hard. Some are facing restrictions on how much they can order and dealing with heightened competition from buyers in flu-ravaged areas. A report released Friday by the US Department of Agriculture described whole-egg supplies in the Northeast region as “very light to moderate.”

And all of that is driving sticker shock in the dairy aisle. The cost of eggs last month was a whopping 36.8 percent higher than it was in December of 2023, according to data released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

While shortages are “really spotty,” Houghton said, varying heavily by town and by store, regional chain Stop & Shop confirmed to the Globe that it has been having trouble keeping eggs on shelves.

“Like other retailers, Stop & Shop is seeing supply challenges with eggs,” a spokesperson said Friday. “Inventory levels may vary depending upon the brand of egg and may also vary by store.”

The biggest factor driving the barren shelves, industry experts said, is HPAI — the highly pathogenic avian influenza infecting flocks across the country. More than 11 million birds have been affected by the virus in the last 30 days, with the highest number of infected flocks located in California, Ohio, and Michigan, per USDA data.

“Supply remains the greatest challenge in the marketplace as HPAI continues to impact commercial table egg layer flocks into the new year,” the US Department of Agriculture said in a Friday report.

When a farm sees any indication of illness in their birds, they must send samples off for lab testing, said Emily Metz, the president of the American Egg Board. If the birds are confirmed to have the virus, which is deadly to them, they must be euthanized. The farm then must disinfect the premises and undergo government inspection before bringing new birds onto the farm, a process that takes anywhere from six to nine months before the farm is producing eggs again.

With demand for eggs among consumers remaining high, Metz said, the industry has been pulled from all directions.

“What we’re really hoping for is a sustained period where we don’t have any new outbreaks and we can reach an equilibrium here in recovery, which would really allow supply to normalize and price to normalize,” said Metz.

And even though Massachusetts does not currently have any birds infected with the virus, local farms are feeling the ripple effects. Anne Diemand Bucci, co-owner of the Diemand Farm in Wendell, said it has already become more difficult to buy chicks as hatcheries deal with the impacts of the bird flu. More people have been coming to Diemand Farm looking to buy eggs after encountering empty shelves at local grocery stores, she added.

“I’ve had to provide forecasts [for chick purchases] out to 2027, which I’ve never had to do before,” said Diemand Bucci.

Complicating matters in Massachusetts, Houghton said, is a Massachusetts animal welfare law that mandates grocers in the state carry only cage-free eggs, which limits supply options further. The bird flu as disproportionately affected cage-free farms recently, according to the American Egg Board.

Metz said it is important for consumers to remain patient throughout the shortage as farmers, government agencies, and other industry professionals research and fight the virus.

“Don’t panic,” said Metz. “Keep calm and crack on.”