By PAUL MILLAR
LOCAL egg producers are being inundated with calls to help make up a shortfall in supplies, following an outbreak of bird flu that closed two major poultry farms in New South Wales.
About 450,000 chickens were culled in New South Wales in early December as a result of the discovery, causing a national shortfall in the lead up to one of the busiest periods of the year.
Local suppliers already have contracts to fulfil but are repeatedly being called up for on the spot supplies.
“It’s good for the local marker but we certainly feel for the famers up there,’’ Stephen Colla, the chief executive at Meredith’s Happy Hens Egg Farm, told the Independent.
Owner of Spring Valley Egg Farm at Torquay, Brian Pocklington, said there had been an increase in demand.
“But we also have our own contracts to fulfil, we are getting phone calls from everybody,’’ he said.
Egg farmers, however, cannot crank up their supplies to meet an increase in demands.
The 450,000 birds that were culled would have laid about six eggs each a week and the loss has made a significant dent in the market.
A spokeswoman for Woolworths said while organic egg supplies had not been hit, the supermarket chain was looking for additional suppliers from caged egg suppliers.
“We are having shortages in New South Wales and Victoria,” she said.
The chickens that were destroyed due to the virus in Young, New South Wales were at a free range and caged egg farm.
