The US government and food chain members are searching the world for alternate sources of fresh eggs, in the face of the ongoing avian flu crisis. And according to a whole flock of news stories, they’re not having much luck…
There’s no international mountain of eggs-in-the-shell like this one
just waiting for the US to come knocking on the door…
You’d think there were mountains of surplus eggs sitting in controlled-environment storage around the world, just waiting for American buyers to come knocking on the door. But that’s apparently not the case.
First, many other countries that might normally have surplus eggs for sale aren’t too happy with the US over Trump’s tariffs. They’re not offering any help. But there are additional overriding factors in play.
Unknown to ordinary folks…
Canada, for instance, would seem, at first glance, a natural source of eggs for hungry US markets. But we’re at odds with the US right now, over the tariffs situation.
Besides, we have what’s known as supply-management for agricultural commodities such as eggs. That means the government controls production through quotas. So, that our domestic requirements are always met, bur there will be no shortages or surpluses that would normally cause prices to rise or fall dramatically due to the forces of supply and demand.
As a result, Canada is not a net exporter of eggs, period. In fact, we imported $235 million in egg products from the US in 2024, including $144 million worth of in-the-shell eggs, which translates to 60.7 million dozen, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Clashing regulations
The US would normally look toward the EU in a domestic produce short situation. But there’s a fun-damental clash between the US and the EU when it comes to in-the-shell eggs.
Eggs come from the chicken with a natural protective film that protects them from intrusion by dirt or dangerous bacteria through their naturally porous shells.
In the EU all members conform to a regulation requiring fresh eggs to remain unwashed or sanitized to protect the natural coating. But US regulations require all imported eggs to be washed and disin-fected for exactly the same reason. They don’t want ‘dirty’ eggs coming into the country, possibly infecting domestic supplies.
Meanwhile…
Other possible international sources of eggs, apparently don’t inspire high levels of confidence in US officials with their prevailing standards for egg handling and storage. Which leads to fundamental concerns about their eggs’ wholesomeness and safety.
My take
Well… Trump certainly shot himself in the foot with his own tariffs on this one. But even if he hadn’t, there would be clear, insoluble issues blocking the easy sourcing and import of foreign eggs, par-ticularly in the quantities the US would like to access.
Here’s a rare situation in which the US, though it’s one of the biggest, most populous, most powerful countries in the world, finds itself essentially powerless…
~ Maggie J.