© Matthias Kulka/CorbisThe bird flu virus.
The cost of a carton of large eggs in the Midwest has jumped nearly 17 percent to $1.39 a dozen from $1.19 since mid-April, when the virus began appearing in Iowa's chicken flocks and farmers culled their flocks to contain any spread. Tuesday, officials reported that the virus had spread to Nebraska.
A much bigger increase has emerged in the eggs used as ingredients in processed products like cake mix and mayonnaise, which account for the majority of what Iowa produces. Those eggs have jumped 63 percent to $1.03 a dozen from 63 cents in the past three weeks, said Rick Brown, senior vice president of Urner Barry, a commodity market analysis firm.
Omaha-area grocers said they had not yet seen a big increase.
Prices on commodity items like eggs fluctuate weekly, said Don Ehly, manager at Wohlner's.
He said prices for a dozen eggs went up a dime last week.
Managers at two Omaha Hy-Vee stores had not noticed an increase.
"So far everything is normal," said dairy manager Nick Tarascio at the Stony Brook store. But, "If everyone is short on eggs, we're going to go up, too."
An increase in the price of eggs used as ingredients could also affect manufacturers such as Omaha's ConAgra Foods, which makes Egg Beaters egg white product.
Iowa, the top egg-producing state in the country, has been hit particularly hard by the virulent strain of avian influenza that has affected nearly 25 million turkeys and chickens. Iowa had more than 58.3 million hens.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture on Wednesday added an egg-laying farm with 238,000 chickens to the outbreak list, bringing the total number of infected farms to 50 in the state.
The farm is in Sioux County, which now has 11 cases of bird flu. Once the disease is confirmed by a U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratory in Ames, all the chickens will be euthanized.
Iowa has bird flu cases in 13 counties.
Nebraska is the No. 10 egg-producing state with about 9.45 million hens.
Wednesday, Gov. Pete Ricketts signed an emergency declaration to ensure adequate resources for the state agencies working to contain the outbreak in Nebraska.
Tuesday, the Nebraska Department of Agriculture announced that a commercial flock of 1.7 million chickens in Dixon County will be destroyed.
Agriculture Director Greg Ibach declined to name the company where the outbreak was discovered, but Dixon County is home to Michael Foods Egg Products Co., a large egg producer in Wakefield.
Cereal maker Post Holdings Inc., which bought Michael Foods last year, said in its May 7 quarterly earnings report that about 14 percent of its egg supply has been affected by the bird flu outbreak. Post estimated the impact at about $20 million through the end of September.
Michael Foods primarily supplies extended shelf-life liquid and precooked egg products and eggs used in food ingredients.
In addition to Michael Foods, other large Nebraska producers and processors include Henningsen Foods in Omaha and Nebraska Eggs in Carroll.
Turkey prices, which had been expected to fall this year, are up slightly, with the bird flu claiming about 5.6 million turkeys nationwide so far. About 238 million turkeys were raised in the U.S. last year. Nebraska's 17 turkey growers raise about 4 million birds each year.
The price of fresh boneless and skinless tom breast meat primarily used for deli meat has risen 10 percent since mid-April to $3.37 a pound, a USDA report said Friday. Frozen hens in the 8- to 16-pound range, those often used for home roasting, were up about 3 percent to $1.06 a pound.
While new bird flu outbreaks are occurring in the turkey market, Tom Elam, an agricultural economist and poultry industry consultant, said cold storage stocks and the number of hens still on farms suggest that turkeys will be available for Thanksgiving.
"Anybody who wants a Thanksgiving turkey is going to be able to get one," he said. "They may have to pay a little more for it but we're not going to have national stock-outs for Thanksgiving turkeys, yet."
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