In short:
Egg shortages have hit the Northern Territory, with suppliers finding it difficult to source enough eggs to meet demand.
A remote Aboriginal-managed farm 350 kilometres north of Alice Springs has bought 50 chickens to provide fresh local eggs for the nearby community.
What's next?
Suppliers are urging shoppers to only buy what eggs they need and to not stock up unnecessarily.
An outback community 350 kilometres north of Alice Springs is improving its food security as Northern Territory egg suppliers struggle to keep up with demand.
Bird flu outbreaks in NSW and Victoria have resulted in 1.3 million chickens being culled to stop the spread of the disease, making it difficult for egg suppliers to meet customer orders.
Meanwhile, McDonald's has temporarily limited its breakfast menu due to egg supply concerns and supermarkets have implemented restrictions on the number of cartons shoppers could buy.
Indigenous-run Centrefarm has helped the remote Aboriginal community of Ali Curung build resilience to egg supply issues by welcoming a flock of new chickens.
Resident and farm worker, Shaunette Riley, said it was important the community had its own chickens so residents didn't have to worry about external egg supply issues.
"For the start we're getting 50 chooks from South Australia," she said.
"We would like to make them lay eggs to sell eggs for the community and then probably later on we might do marketing on the weekends up in town," she said.
"We never had chooks and never had fresh eggs before in Ali Curung."
Fellow Centrefarm employee Tisha Corbett said six ladies, with the help of some men, had built the chicken coop at the property.
"I'm very happy seeing it grow because it's not just for us, it's also for our children, we're making it bigger for them," she said.
Customers stocking up
Meanwhile, a Darwin supplier has had difficulty filling customer orders over the past few weeks due to local buyers "stocking up".
Flanno's Eggs business manager Steven Reid, whose customers include Coles and Woolworths, said the situation was stressful and he was having to refuse new customers.
"I'm limited on what I can get, so I have to limit what I can sell," he said.
"It's impacting not just me but also other suppliers that are up here."
Mr Reid said in a typical dry season week he would sell about 500 boxes of eggs but demand had spiked over the past week to more than 1,000 boxes.
He said he was only able to secure about half of the eggs he needed because his sole supplier was busy conducting regular bird flu tests on his flock because his property was within the NSW quarantine area.
'Massive shortages'
Mr Reid said the situation was similar to people panic buying toilet paper during COVID-19.
"There definitely is massive shortages, like I would deliver to one store, go in the next day and 99 per cent of it's already sold," he said.
"If you need to make a cake or something, try to hold off as long as possible until this situation can get sorted because otherwise everyone will keep complaining that there's no eggs."
Mr Reid said he had restricted the amount of eggs he would supply retailers and had asked the retailers to restrict their customers too.
Central Fruit and Vegetable Wholesalers, which supplies many remote community stores around central Australia, has also been struggling to meet the demand for eggs.
Owner Kulwinder Singh said it had been particularly difficult to get free range eggs.
"I ordered a whole pallet and I got eight [free range] cartons," he said.
"Most of the community stores actually buy cage eggs but because of the shortage in free range egg supply, everyone is demanding cage eggs now ... so then supply goes down with them as well.
"A couple of weeks ago if some stores ordered 20 cartons [of caged eggs] we'd be trying to fill up 10 at least, so 50 per cent."
Price hike
Mr Reid and Mr Singh said they had experienced increased prices which they had reluctantly passed onto their customers.
Mr Reid said the cost of buying eggs from his supplier had gone up 26 per cent, from $48 per box to $60 per box.
"Most of the industry is looking at a 20 to 30 per cent price increase because of the demand, but that's also to cover the cost of the quarantine," he said.
Mr Singh said he had started sourcing eggs from markets in Brisbane and Adelaide but the market prices were about $20 more expensive.
"If I get cheaper, I sell cheaper, but when I have no option I have to buy from the market ... and they're trying to sell it with their own margin as well, so that's why it's getting expensive," he said.
Mr Singh said his normal suppliers charged $69 per box, but the market eggs were costing $89 per box.
"Sometimes it's very frustrating," he said.
"Unfortunately we can't do much about it.
"We are in the middle of nowhere ... freight and the buying power is not there either.
"Sometimes I lose money but I still fulfil my customers' demand because they are loyal to me and I want to be loyal with them as well."
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