H-E-B restricts egg sales after bird flu outbreak in the Midwest

HOUSTON – H-E-B is restricting how many eggs you can buy after a huge bird flu outbreak affecting chickens in the Midwest.

New guidelines are posted in the stores – reading: "H-E-B is committed to ensuring Texas families and households have access to eggs, our eggs are not for commercial sale. We are asking our customers to limit their purchase to three cartons per purchase. The signs placed on our shelves last week are to deter commercial users from buying eggs in bulk."

H-E-B released a statement Thursday that read, in part: "The United States is facing a temporary disruption in the supply of eggs due to the Avian Flu.  The avian flu this year has impacted a significant portion of the egg laying population in the United States (over 30 million birds).  This temporary constriction in the US market has caused an increase in price and shortage in availability of eggs.

"H-E-B works hard to absorb price increases and to level out the volatility in the commodity market for our customers."

Across the street from the HEB on San Felipe, Fountain View cafe owner Steve Drayer said they buy eggs from a different seller but still feel the sting from the shortage.

"The cost of eggs has gone up considerably, in the last two weeks it's gone up $20 a case," he said.

Drayer thinks that price hike will eventually get passed on to you.

"They're reacting to the needs of the market, I'm sure they're just trying to accommodate as many of their customers as they possibly can."

While Drayer is trying to do the same at Fountainview Cafe, he says the egg shortage is making more work for them because they can't buy liquid egg whites anymore so they separate the eggs themselves.

With complications just starting, Drayer thinks this could be a tough problem to crack.

"My distributors are giving me an allotment, whether or not that's going to be enough to fill my needs, I hope between two distributors I can satisfy my needs on a weekly basis."

Kroger said Thursday afternoon that it was not limiting the amount of eggs you can buy.


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