Finland refused to supply of chicken eggs to the United States, local television company Yle reports.
"When there are no agreed-upon regulations, starting exports is not easy," said Veera Lehtilä, Executive Director of the Finnish Poultry Association, in a statement to the television company.
Even if Finland were able to begin exports, it would not significantly benefit the United States, Lehtilä noted.
"We had to cull millions of birds due to avian flu. Finland has a total of 4 million laying hens. The amount we could supply would not solve the egg shortage problem," she added.
The US has been facing a shortage of chicken eggs and a surge in prices – over 50 percent higher than a year ago – due to avian flu. The US Department of Agriculture, in response to the egg shortage, reached out to producers in Denmark and several other European countries in an attempt to secure additional imports, Reuters said.
The US previously imported the largest amount of eggs from Canada, but due to the trade war declared by Donald Trump, no increase in imports is expected, Yle notes.
The bird flu epidemic, which killed more than 20 million laying hens in the US in the last quarter of 2024, led to a surge in egg prices and caused eggs shortages in stores. At the end of February, according to the US Department of Agriculture, the average price for 12 eggs in the Midwestern states amounted to $8.41, which was a record high and more than 200% higher than last year.
The US Department of Justice launched a preliminary investigation into the surge in egg prices across the country. The goal, according to Bloomberg, is to check whether egg producers Cal-Maine Foods and Rose Acre Farms have colluded to raise prices and limit supply of the product.