Article : Shortage of Eggs

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Three deadly strains of the bird flu have impacted chicken farms. With fewer chickens making eggs, the cost of eggs is on the rise.

WESLACO -

The nationwide shortage of eggs is affecting restaurants in the Rio Grande Valley. Some local restaurants are making adjustments.

Three deadly strains of the bird flu have an impact on chicken farms. Nearly 43 million chickens in 15 states have either died or had to be put down. With fewer chickens making eggs, the cost of eggs is on the rise.

Eggs are a huge part of Monterrey Café, a Weslaco restaurant. Annica Mendiola told CHANNEL 5 NEWS the rising cost of eggs forced them to change the way they get their eggs.

“We used to get our eggs through a distributor but the prices went up and we could only get a small amount. So we started going to Sam’s to get them,” said Mendiola.

Sam’s Club has a limit on how many eggs a person can buy at a time. “We have to go more often to get what we need and we can’t get it delivered,” said Mendiola.

She said they used to pay $30 for a case of eggs. The distributor raised the price to $38 and that forced the restaurant to buy somewhere else. “Prices did go up for us to buy but prices at the restaurant stayed the same,” Mendiola said.

Restaurant chains also made changes due to the egg shortage. Whataburger changed their breakfast hours. They will only serve breakfast from 5 a.m. until 9 a.m. on weekdays.

Mendiola told us the Monterrey Café will continue to offer breakfast until 11 a.m.

Fewer eggs have led to pricier eggs at the grocery store. In late April, the average price for a dozen eggs was $1.19. Today, the cheapest price was at H-E-B where a dozen was $2.00.

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