No eggs in Washington: EU countries refuse to supply eggs to USA

Finland refused to supply of chicken eggs to the United States, local television company Yle reports.

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by Rüdiger Wölk, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/

Brown eggs

"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.

Details

Avian influenza also known as avian flu or bird flu, is a disease caused by the influenza A virus, which primarily affects birds but can sometimes affect mammals including humans. Wild aquatic birds are the primary host of the influenza A virus, which is enzootic (continually present) in many bird populations. Symptoms of avian influenza vary according to both the strain of virus underlying the infection, and on the species of bird or mammal affected. Classification of a virus strain as either low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) or high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is based on the severity of symptoms in domestic chickens and does not predict severity of symptoms in other species. Chickens infected with LPAI display mild symptoms or are asymptomatic, whereas HPAI causes serious breathing difficulties, significant drop in egg production, and sudden death. Domestic poultry may potentially be protected from specific strains of the virus by vaccination. Humans and other mammals can only become infected with avian influenza after prolonged close contact with infected birds. In mammals including humans, infection with avian influenza (whether LPAI or HPAI) is rare. Symptoms of infection vary from mild to severe, including fever, diarrhea, and cough.