The US will import eggs from the Netherlands to face the shortage
With an increasing egg shortage due to the widespread bird flu outbreak, the United States will soon allow imported egg products from the Netherlands to be used for commercial baking and in processed foods.
The American Bakers Association (ABA) applauds the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) decision to reinstate The Netherlands to as an exporter of pasteurized egg products to the United States.
“We are very happy with the response from the USDA to expedite the approval of egg products from the Netherlands,” said Robb MacKie, ABA President & CEO. “This swift response is a direct result of ABA members taking action to ensure that USDA and Congress react appropriately to this crisis,” Added MacKie.
With diminishing egg supplies due to the avian influenza outbreak, the U.S. egg market is struggling to fulfill demand needs for bakers and other food producers. ABA and its membership quickly weighed in with close to 1,000 e-mails and phone calls to USDA and Members of Congress asking for additional import opportunities.
“We are now at 35 per cent of the egg product supply being taken offline due to the avian influenza. Opening imports from the Netherlands is a big step in the right direction, but more is needed,” said Cory Martin, ABA Director, Government Relations. “We are facing a true crisis, and without additional actions to increase supply, bakers and many other food manufacturers face dire situations in the coming weeks and months,” added Martin.
Generally, the US produces enough eggs to meet domestic supply and export more than 30m dozen eggs a month to trade partners, as Mexico or Canada, but the H5N2 virus has left nearly 47 million birds dead or dying.
The company Whataburger confronted for few days with the egg shortage, but the crisis was resolved.
“I can’t tell you how many farmers this is affecting,” United Egg Producers (UEP) Director of Food Safety Oscar Garrison recently told The Washington Post. “It’s been absolutely devastating. Just abysmal.”