United States officials are searching across oceans to find enough eggs to ease a shortage that’s sent prices soaring, forcing grocery stores to limit customer purchases and restaurants to add surcharges.

Poultry trade groups in countries like Poland — the world’s second-biggest shipper — to smaller players, like France and Indonesia, say their nations are fielding inquiries from American embassies and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) about eggs for export.

It shows how far afield the nation is willing to go to bolster supplies after the worst-ever bird flu outbreak killed millions of hens and sent retail prices doubling from a year ago, contributing to broader inflation pressures. The U.S. needs to import 70 to 100 million eggs within the next month or two to fill the gap. President Donald Trump, who made lowering the cost of groceries a key theme of his election campaign, has labelled the market “a disaster.”

But it’s not proving an easy feat. Their short shelf life and fragile shells make eggs inherently challenging to ship and means countries don’t always have a surplus ready. Animal products also often draw tougher trade requirements than crops like grain or sugar, and some nations are battling bird flu cases of their own.

“What we responded to the USDA is that there are no volumes available in France, and there are very few in Europe,” Thomas Bartlett, secretary general of French egg industry group SNIPO, said in an interview.

Wholesale prices in the European Union have recently reached a two-year high, government data show. Bird flu outbreaks in the bloc have spurred shortages in France, Bartlett said.

Even where foreign supplies are available, it’s unclear if they will help restock supermarket shelves. Some nations say they would need to crack, dry or freeze their stock to sell it across an ocean.

Poland’s National Chamber of Poultry and Feed Producers was approached last week by the U.S. embassy, according to Katarzyna Gawrońska, the group’s director.

“We informed the American side that there is a possibility, although limited, to ship eggs in shells,” she said over email. But it would be possible “to export very large volumes of processed egg products.”

Differences in standards over washing or handling eggs is another trade hurdle, as is the need to obtain permits. For example, Poland has the necessary health certificates for eggs intended for processing in the U.S., but not for retail in stores, according to Gawrońska.

In other cases, the lack of an established egg trade with the U.S. means local producers have to play catch-up.

Spanish suppliers’ group Inovo is currently trying to ascertain what quantities it may have available to ship to the U.S., according to its director, María del Mar Fernández Poza. It’s also speaking to the USDA about health certification.

The U.S. plans to reinstate import licenses for Dutch egg products, pulled in January amid discussions over industry practices, Bloomberg reported last week. The Netherlands is the world’s top seller.

Indonesia, a much smaller shipper, received a USDA survey to determine interest in exporting whole or processed eggs and an estimate of how much they could ship in the next six months, according to Achmad Dawami, the chairman of the Indonesia Poultry Breeders’ Association.

The nation has been seeking new markets and could export about 1.6 million eggs a month to the U.S., Deputy Agriculture Minister Sudaryono said, adding that the government will ensure domestic supplies, especially for its free lunch program, aren’t disrupted. Most of its shipments last year were confined to Asia, according to United Nations figures.

Still, given how essential eggs are across global diets, some countries are taking steps to prevent too many from heading abroad.

Turkey, which plans to sell 15,000 tons to the U.S. through July, recently added an export tax to control local prices. The country is also dealing with bird flu outbreaks, and eggs are important during the ongoing holy month of Ramadan when families often gather for large meals after a day of fasting.

Despite the opportunity presented by high U.S. prices, there isn’t much readily available supply for what’s one of the biggest egg markets in the world, said Nan-Dirk Mulder, Rabobank’s senior global specialist for animal protein. Only three per cent of the world’s egg supply enters global trade, according to Rabobank.

“It’s a very local industry,” Mulder said. “If you want to rebalance the market, you need big volumes. It’s almost impossible, in the short term, to do that.”

—With assistance from Maddie Parker and Pratik Parija.

Bloomberg.com