“In a cost-of-living crisis, more and more people are eating eggs because they’re an affordable source of protein,” she said.
“So you’ve got all these complex problems on top of the fact that you have a demand increase, suddenly you have lack of eggs off the shelf.”
A highly pathogenic strain of bird flu was first detected at a vast egg farm in Meredith.Credit: Jason South
Buying chicken meat hadn’t been as big a problem, Cucinotta said, because most poultry farms in the areas affected by the outbreak produced only eggs. Some farms were made to temporarily stop breeding birds because it was deemed risky, but it had not been an ongoing issue.
“There was a slight disruption, and I absolutely feel for the farms that were unable to repopulate but [it’s] nowhere near the destruction … it did to eggs,” she said.
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The Department of Agriculture is advising consumers to refrain from purchasing more eggs than needed.
Cucinotta said she was terrified that an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 variant in Australia could happen any time.
“We’re essentially, as an industry, planning when, not if,” she said.
“So if there is another outbreak, you will see a mass shortage of eggs across the entire country, just because we’ve already depleted some of our supply.”
Wes Humpage, an egg farmer from Maude, south-west of Melbourne, said taking a proactive approach in tightening biosecurity would prevent the industry being caught “on the back foot” in the future.
Humpage, who supplies to businesses in the Geelong area, said he expected supply to begin normalising in the next three months.
“Springtime egg production, this is the time where … everything is really high efficiency… in terms of egg lay rate.”
Woolworths said its egg supply was improving every week and that demand from customers was higher than last year. Coles said it would continue imposing limits of two cartons per shopper while the industry recovers.
Warmer weather is, however, bringing more fruit – such as blueberries and mangoes – into season.
Berries Australia executive director Rachel Mackenzie said a strong supply of blueberries had lowered prices.
“There’ll be good availability for at least the next month,” Mackenzie said.
Warmer weather has brought a larger supply of blueberries.Credit: Bloomberg
“I’d say the prices will remain pretty low for the next few weeks, or to a month.”
Meanwhile, mango season is climbing, said Trevor Dunmall, the chief executive of the Australian Mangoes Industry Association.
“Consumers will have seen some mangoes in store for the last few weeks, now it will ramp up from basically next week right through Christmas and well into the new year,” Dunmall said.
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