AP – Small business owners that rely on eggs for their products are facing sticker shock because the usually reliable staple is in short supply.
Avian flu is forcing farmers to slaughter millions of chickens a month, causing United States (US) egg prices to skyrocket. The average price of a dozen Grade A eggs in US cities reached USD4.95 in January, eclipsing the previous record of USD4.82 set two years earlier and more than double the low of USD2.04 that was recorded in August 2023. The Agriculture Department predicts prices will soar another 20 per cent this year.
Most owners are taking the increase in stride, looking at it as just one of many hurdles they constantly face. But if the problem persists, they could be forced to raise prices or adjust their products.
Liz Berman is the owner and sole proprietor of The Sleepy Baker in Natick, Massachusetts. She specialises in custom, from-scratch cakes but also sells cupcakes, cookies, pies and other baked goods.
Eggs are just one of the baking ingredients experiencing price shocks. Items such as cocoa powder and butter have gone up as well. And price isn’t the only issue.
“It’s not just the cost of eggs, right? It’s also just the availability,” she said. She prefers to buy medium-sized white shelled eggs, buying a box with 18 dozen eggs, but two weeks ago those were unavailable, so she had to buy brown eggs in individual cartons of 12. “It sounds kind of silly, but when I I’m the sole proprietor and I have a huge volume of work, to have to take a dozen of eggs out of my walk-in at a time as opposed to a flat of eggs, it’s just it’s a pain,” she said.
She doesn’t think prices will ease anytime soon. Cocoa powder prices have been elevated for years.
“I think ultimately I’m going to have to increase my prices, which is hard because that’s going to mean that there’s a category of customer that won’t order from me anymore,” she said.
In Princeton, New Jersey, John Nachlinger, owner of the Bad Cookie Company, is imposing a temporary USD.025 per cookie surcharge to help mitigate added costs. “As cookies are already a tight-margin food, these increases have really hurt our bottom line,” Nachlinger said.
He said he doesn’t want to permanently raise prices or adjust the size of his cookies since he hopes the egg situation is temporary. “We want to bring value to our customers,” he said.
