Eggs Continued from Page 3
Cage-free eggs are packed at Hi Desert Egg in San Bernardino. The farm, in Lucerne Valley, produces
might change that for a week or so.” Holbrook said she has seen robust de- mand at the nationwide level, with buy- ers saying, “name the price and they’ll do what they can to match it.” But as a small producer, she said she “can’t really fulfill” the large orders those buyers are seeking, typically in the amount of 50 dozen a day. Despite organic feed costs rising nearly 30% since mid-2020, Holbrook said she’s not charging more for her eggs. Instead, she said she’s exploring other enterprises suchasgiving farmtoursandsellingdiffer- entmerchandise to boost revenue. DaVonne Johnson, who runs a flock of about 400 layers in Contra Costa County, said she’s had to raise her prices for the first time in six years. In addition to pay- ing 30% more for feed, she said the cost of other materials has gone up, including fuel, egg cartons, labels and shavings for chicken-coop bedding. The Easter holiday won’t impact her sales, she said, because “we only sell brown eggs, and they’re not desirable for dyeing.” Even with the price of her eggs higher since the beginning of the month, she said she has not noticed a slowdown in her direct sales. “Hereat the farm,” Johnsonsaid, “people are so happy to get the eggs that I haven’t heard anything back regarding the price.” (ChingLeeisanassistanteditorofAgAlert. Shemaybe contactedat clee@cfbf.com.)
‘no, I’mnot paying that.’” Zaritsky said themarket has alreadybe- gun to correct itself, with prices coming down last week. Egg prices have become so high, he said, that “a lot of people are not buying, so eggs are starting to back up a little bit.” “Now I will have to adjust my prices down,” he said, even though his produc- tion costs remain elevated. The implementation of Proposition 12, which took effect at the start of the year, also affected his business, Zaritsky said. The lawestablishedminimumspacing re- quirements for housing egg-laying hens, breeding pigs and calves raised for veal. Zaritsky’s own farm has always pro- duced cage-free eggs, but he also sold commodity eggs from caged birds raised on other farms. With Proposition 12, cage-free production is now standard in the state. “(Cage-free)was likemyniche,”he said, “and noweverybody does it.” He said he’s now focusing more on specialty cage-free eggs such as fertilized eggs and“super-darkyolkeggs” that Asian shoppers favor. Hilliker said he believes Proposition 12—which requires other states selling eggs into California to meet the law’s housing requirements—has contributed
brown and white eggs.
to shorter supplies of eggs, because some producers either quit the business or didn’t convert their operations. “Withall thesehighcosts, it’shard to find themoney,” he said, noting that he himself hastwobarnsthathaveyet tobecompleted. To meet projected demand, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that about 66%ofU.S. egg-layinghenswillneed to be in cage-free production by 2026. As of last year, organic and cage-free egg pro- duction accounted for more than 29%, or 96.1millionhens, of total U.S. eggproduc- tion. That’s up from 14% in 2016 and 4% in 2010. By 2026, nine states—including California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan,Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, UtahandWashington—will requireall egg layers to be cage-free. After losing a lot of her restaurant cus- tomers during the past two years due to thepandemicshutdowns,SonomaCounty egg producer Tiffany Holbrook said she’s
“trying to find unique ways to sell” her eggs, including“trying totakeadvantageof Easter.” The farmis nowselling all-natural egg-coloring kits and eggs that have been dyed, to show that her light-brown eggs “still hold thesebeautiful colors.”She’salso offering discounts on smaller eggs. Holbrook used to sell 60% to 70% of her eggs wholesale. But at the start of the pandemic lockdown, whengrocery stores were running out of eggs, her farm’s egg vendingmachine “got very, very popular, so we were able to greatly increase our customer base” through direct sales. The surge indemandpromptedher to increase her birdnumbers andeggproduction. But sales have sincemellowed. “Now we’re actually trying to pro- duce less because the wholesale didn’t quite come back as we had hoped it would,” she said. “We definitely are producing more eggs than we’re able to sell right now. We hope that Easter
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16 Ag Alert April 13, 2022
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