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COVID impact on egg supply chain called “confusing and challenging”
The director of the Iowa Egg Council describes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the U.S. egg supply chain as “confusing” and “challenging.”
Kevin Stiles tells Brownfield coronavirus totally disrupted the market.
“We saw a significant increase in the purchase or eggs at retail, and of course soon after we saw sales at food service basically come close to drying up.”
The pandemic increased table egg retail and farmgate prices by 140 to 180 percent while at the same time dropping restaurant-style breaking stock egg prices by nearly 70 percent.
Stiles says it’s unclear how long a full rebound in food service will take.
“The good news is during the pandemic we saw a great increase in at-home consumption and people returning to those foods that are comfort foods, and did more baking and using eggs. Fortunately we have a product in eggs that are very flexible and versatile.”
Stiles expects less price fluctuation across the egg supply chain as the COVID vaccine gets more widely distributed and restaurants continue to reopen.
The food supply issue is ridiculous. It’s the farmers job and suppliers jobs to make sure Americans have enough food on the store shelves for consumption.