Lack of eggs turns chickens into pets in the US

The big spike in egg prices in the United States scared some consumers, who decided to act to guarantee their future supply of the product.

Demand for chicks that will grow up to become laying hens – which had already surged at the start of the pandemic in 2020 – has accelerated again with the arrival of the 2023 sales season, and this is forcing hatcheries to scramble to meet demand.

US incubators report that demand is surprisingly robust this year. Many attribute the spike to high retail grocery prices, and particularly to rapid inflation in eggs, which in December were 60% higher than a year earlier.

The shift is part of a broader phenomenon: A small but rapidly growing portion of the American population is now interested in growing and producing food at home, a trend that had already emerged before the pandemic and which has been reinvigorated by the shortages it has caused.

The growth of interest in poultry underscores the way in which America’s first experience of rapid inflation and shortages since the 1980s left scars on society that may linger even after price increases fade.

And the chicken-and-egg story — in which supply problems pile up, create rapid inflation and inflict hardship on consumers — is something of an allegory for what has been happening in the broader economy since 2020.

Prices for a wide range of goods have soared in recent years as unusually strong demand for goods, driven by lifestyle changes caused by the pandemic and accumulated savings from stimulus payments, has strangled the world’s shipping lanes and overloaded factories and other production units.

These problems have only been compounded by the Ukraine War, which has been disrupting global food and energy supplies.

Grocery price inflation has been particularly acute as grain supplies have contracted and fuel, fertilizer and animal feed costs have risen sharply.

Compounding the situation, an outbreak of avian flu swept commercial farms early last year, sending egg prices soaring. Some grocery stores began to ration products, limiting customers to buying a dozen or two.

Egg prices have already started to fall: the US Department of Agriculture announced this week that the average price of a dozen large eggs was slightly below US$ 3.40 (R$ 17), compared to more than US$ 5.00 (R$25) at the beginning of the year.

But still, that’s about double the price of a dozen at this point last year, and it could take months for prices to return to more normal levels as poultry houses replenish depleted stocks.

Translated by Paulo Migliacci