SCHOENEICHE, Germany (AP) — The U.S. government is on a global egg hunt, seeking exports from countries in Europe and elsewhere to ease a severe shortage that has caused egg prices at grocery stores to hit record highs.
Germany, Italy, Poland and Sweden are among the nations the U.S. Department of Agriculture approached to address the shortage brought on by a bird flu outbreak, according to European industry groups.
But supplying Americans with eggs would be complicated for foreign producers — and not because of political tensions over the myriad import tariffs President Donald Trump has imposed or threatened to impose on his nation’s top trading partners.
Even if they were eager to share, European countries don’t have many surplus eggs because of their own avian flu outbreaks and the growing domestic demand ahead of Easter.
One of the biggest obstacles, however, is the approach the United States takes to preventing salmonella contamination. U.S. food safety regulations require fresh eggs to be sanitized and refrigerated before they reach shoppers; in the European Union, safety standards call for Grade A eggs to be sold unwashed and without extended chilling.
“These are two systems that could not be more different,” said Hans-Peter Goldnick, the president of the German Egg Association.
Feathers on eggs at the supermarket
It is common in parts of Europe, for example, for consumers to buy eggs that still have feathers and chicken poop stuck to them.
Farmer David Karlsch described the simple process that gets eggs from hens to customers of the family-owned Saballus poultry farm in Schoeneiche, a town just outside Germany’s capital: The eggs are taken from nests, placed into cartons and sold on the premises or from a refrigerated vending machine just outside the property.
“The demand at Easter time is of course very, very high, as many children naturally want to paint eggs,” Karlsch said.
Poland, a major egg exporter, fielded a U.S. query about the availability of eggs, according to Katarzyna Gawrońska, director of the National Chamber of Poultry and Feed Producers. The issue of washed vs. unwashed was a crucial factor as European officials considered such requests, she said.
Eggs are not cleaned in most of the 27 EU nations because of concerns that removing the natural protective coating from eggshells makes them more vulnerable to bacteria, Gawrońska said.
Polish veterinary officials are trying to determine if the country and its farmers can meet U.S. requirements, such as whether the exporting nation has a comparable food safety inspection system or a significant bird flu outbreak.
Powdered egg products
Although European Union regulations state that table eggs “shall not be washed or cleaned,” member countries have some leeway if they authorized egg baths at packing plants decades ago.
Danish Egg Association CEO Jørgen Nyberg Larsen said national customs are part of it; washed eggs are the norm in Sweden, for example. But Sweden and Norway have informed the U.S. they don’t have extra eggs to export, Larsen said.
For now, any increased U.S. egg imports from Europe are more likely to arrive in powdered form or other products that can be shipped frozen or dried, Larsen said.
That’s the response Poland’s trade association gave U.S. officials. If the U.S. certifies Poland as a source, the organization’s members would have a limited number of shell eggs to sell but could supply “very large volumes of egg processing products,” Gawrońska said.
