New Zealand's Great Egg Shortage

Prices are on the rise and parts of the country have seen empty shelves where eggs normally sit. One reason is a change in the way chickens are raised.

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Pavlova crowns the New Zealand holiday table. Named after Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, it's a towering pile of whipped cream, meringue and fruit, resembling, accidentally or not, the frothy tulle of its namesake's tutu. (Save yourself the trouble and don't ask if the dessert originated on Australian or New Zealand soil.)

New Zealanders might have a "pav", as the dish is known, at a family reunion, to mark a special occasion or simply because someone has egg whites to use. At Christmas meals, it's almost obligatory - a last hurrah after slices of hot ham or roast potatoes with a leg of lamb.

This year , many families got their Christmas pav because they just couldn't get the eggs.

Since November New Zealanders have been scrambling after that a shortage of eggs has gripped the country. Supermarket shelves in some areas are empty of eggs and a clutch of 12 broods now costs around NZ$6, up 16% from the previous year, according to the Stats NZ Food Price Index. In some places, supermarkets have limited purchases to two packets per customer.

Desperate for omelettes and frittatas, some have had the idea of ​​raising chickens . Searches for chickens and "chicken-related items" on New Zealand's largest auction and classifieds site have recently jumped by more than 75%. Animal welfare advocates have urged people not starting their own backyard farms, saying more chickens are abandoned each year than those who avidly watching soufflés on demand might be expected.< /p>

"Please don't buy chicken unless you can handle it term," Gabby Clezy, chief executive of the S.P.C.A, one of New Zealand's largest animal welfare agencies. charities, told the Guardian. She noted that birds can live for over a decade but only produce eggs for the first two or three years of their lives.

But what- what caused this shortage?< /p>

New Zealand should have an adequate supply of eggs in a country where agriculture is a vital part of the economy , with products like lamb, wheat and cheese accounting for almost 80% of the country's exports. Demand is higher than ever: every year the average New Zealander eats around 237 eggs.

The story behind what might seem like a sudden shortage goes back to a decade. In 2012, the New Zealand government told poultry farmers they would have 10 years to transition from caged battery hens to a free-range colony - a word usually referring to larger cages - or a system "raised in cages". barn". At the time, about 80% of eggs were laid by battery hens.

The 10-year window was designed to give farmers enough time to obtain planning permission from local authorities in order to adjust their farms, import equipment from Europe and make other necessary arrangements.

A third of these farmers have duly passed breeding in colonies, sometimes paying