Fargo restaurant describes how rising egg prices impact its bottom line

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) – A chicken and an egg problem and a perfect storm involving Easter, inflation and bird flu are forcing farmers to kill some of their egg-laying hens, reducing the country’s egg supply and raising prices.

Consumers across the country are finding no eggs on the shelves or they’re paying nearly three dollars a dozen.

That’s three times as much as last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Tanya Bale, owner of The Shack, is one of those consumers who goes through thousands of eggs a week.

“Right now, we went from, we just did a price increase in March. So, now we’re really watching, you know I might have to adjust that sooner than later even and have another price increase this summer. “Usually we can ride it out for a little while. We sort of just have to keep an eye on how the prices are fluctuating and if they go back, great. If not, then, yes, price increases are coming and it’s not just eggs it’s chicken also. We either can’t get certain things that we like to use and we’re substituting with whatever we can get.”” says Bale.

It isn’t her first rodeo dealing with avian flu, but this one has been the worst so far.

“This is an extreme case, this is the worst one. The last time the bird flu went through, it wasn’t this extreme of price increases and stuff. You know, we rode it out that time. And truly, eggs are a protein source on a lot of our breakfast and stuff too but then there’s other, like in omelets, you have other protein sources, the meat cost and stuff involved in that. But eggs, you can generally get a lot of meals out of a dozen eggs but when you’re going through six to eight thousand eggs a week like we do, that’s a lot. And that’s a big impact on our bottom line,” Bale says.

Egg prices have increased by 52% since February, when the avian flu was discovered, according to the Wall Street Journal.