In a country fond of pastry, about to enter the pre-Christmas season, the shortage and rationing of eggs has taken many by surprise.
Since mid-November, more and more department stores and department stores have put up the sign warning their customers that they can only take a limited number of eggs home.
It is restrictions are meant to be temporarybut the British Association of Free-range Egg Producers has already warned that rationing could last until after Christmas.
That is, the supply would not return to normal for another month.
Gursel Kirik, who serves breakfast at her cafe in central London, told AFP that a box of 360 eggs It cost him about US$25 three months ago.
Now he pays about $82 for it on the wholesale market.
This situation is the result of several factors that They have formed “the perfect storm”.
The pastry, a British tradition like the monarchy.
Experts say that the demand for eggs increased this year because the Brits look for cheaper protein sources to offset rising meat prices.
At the same time, many producers have decided to leave the market to curb the risk of losing money on every egg they produce.
stop producing
“The UK egg industry has been dealing with unprecedented pressures for some time. The increased costs that producers have faced in the last year has caused many to have had no choice but to stop production,” Andrew Joret, president of the British Egg Industry Council (BEIC), told BBC Mundo.
And it is that the war in Russia and Ukraine has not only raised the energy bill in the farms, but has also triggered the price of the grain with which the chickens are fed, exposing, once again, how the economic events in a point of the planet can affect the pocket of citizens in places thousands of kilometers away.
Producer associations denounce that since 2019, these costos have increased by 90%.
Both Russia and Ukraine play a strategic role in the world markets for raw materials, especially for wheat.
Its exports represent 29% of global wheat sales.
Official figures confirm that in the third quarter of 2022 there was a 9.6% decrease in the packaging of eggs for sale.
And if one higher customer demand coupled with lower supply of the producers were not enough, an outbreak of avian flu has come to give the final straw to the situation.
The UK is facing its largest outbreak of bird flu on recordwhich adds to the existing shortage.
Since November 7, the government has required that all poultry and captive birds in the country be kept indoors.
In addition, there have been mass bird culls in areas where the disease has been detected, further limiting egg production.
From October to 2.3 million birds have died or been culled in the United Kingdom.
“We encourage customers to buy only what they need so that stock levels can return to normal as soon as possible,” a spokesman for the Morrison chain told local media.
A typical English breakfast includes several eggs.
The quintessential English breakfast
Tom Wood, a farmer who provides eggs to local shops and restaurants in the Somerset area’s Chew Valley, told the BBC that put limits on the number people can buy It would be a very useful measure.
But the truth is that the eggs are one of the most nutritious and sustainable foods on the shopping list.
In addition, they play a crucial role in the daily meals of many families.
Without going very far the famous “English breakfast”, the typical British breakfast which includes beans and sausage, it would not be the same without a couple of eggs or some scrambled eggs to accompany it.
Remember that you can receive notifications from BBC Mundo. Download the new version of our app and activate them so you don’t miss out on our best content.
