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Egg shortage is demand issue: Australian Eggs

By Rodney Woods

Apr 6, 2020

Australian egg farmers are reassuring customers there is no need to fear food shortages due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Retailers have limited egg purchases alongside other household staples in response to panic buying, but any absence of eggs in stores is purely demand driven, and not a reflection of the continuity of supply.

“Australia’s 21 million hens are still laying eggs and farmers are working around the clock to get those eggs to their customers,” Australian Eggs managing director Rowan McMonnies said.

“We’re confident of maintaining steady supply through autumn and winter and there will be eggs readily available when the short-term stockpiling and panic buying stops.

“Of course, egg farmers are concerned about the potential impact of coronavirus on their staff and wider supply chains but there have been no reports of disruptions across the industry.”

Individual egg farms are reconfiguring their operations to minimise the risk that one infected employee could disrupt a whole farm.

“We have had to rethink the way we do things to provide for stricter team separation and some of the same social distancing principles that are being applied in public,” Mr McMonnies said.

“These measures will go a long way to mitigating risks and underpin continuity of egg supply for Australian consumers.”