Alex Trelinski
EGG prices have soared in Spain in recent weeks caused by avian flu outbreaks in the US and EU coupled with rising demand.
The OCU consumer group says that the price of a dozen medium-sized eggs has gone up by 25.2% since April 2024.
Most of that increase has been over the last two months.
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In February, a box of medium eggs cost between €2.07 and €2.10 going up to €2.60 by March 12.
The OCU said that a dozen large-sized eggs stood at €2.80 earlier this month- a 15.4% average increase over the last 12 months.
Avian flu has caused millions of hens to be slaughtered,especially in the United States.
The manager of Huevos Redondo in Avila, Cesar Redondo, told the El Pais newspaper: “There’s an egg shortage in Europe with buyers coming to us.”
“Italy is one of the largest producers, which uses a lot of eggs to make pasta, but is affected by the flu, while France is seeing farms close down because younger family members don’t want to keep businesses going,” he added.
Redondo explained that he supplies around 250,000 eggs per day, mainly to hospitality businesses in the Madrid area.
He claims recently to get an average of 30 calls each day from potential new clients including a business from Holland that sent a trailer and loaded it up, with an immediate payment made.
Spain’s Egg Producing associations(Federovo and Aseprhu) said that overall supply is affected by 15 million birds having to be killed as a result of avian flu.
The good news is that no outbreaks have been reported on Spanish farms this year.
A statement said: “We have been largely unaffected in recent years, mainly due to the high professionalism of technicians and poultry farmers, who apply strict biosecurity measures.”
“Poultry farms are continually being modernised and are better prepared to counter any infections.”
They confirmed that demand has risen for Spanish eggs from the rest of Europe due to a lack of hens.
