Bird flu: Bay Area restaurants brace for impact as egg price skyrockets, supply plummets

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The bird flu is hitting the national supply of eggs hard. It's limiting supplies and driving up prices.

According to a recently released report by the USDA, the cost of a dozen large shell eggs in California costs an average of $8.90.

If you're looking for eggs, you may be shocked at what you see.

At a Safeway in San Francisco, you'll see empty shelves and a sign showing eggs going for $9.99 a dozen if you are buying organic eggs.

"That's too much. That's crazy really," said Miok Kim.

At Trader Joe's on Bay Street, eggs are going for $3.99 to $6.49 a dozen. The shelves are also empty.

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"I tried to buy some yesterday, but they didn't have any in stock," said Abby Needham of San Francisco.

The supply of eggs in California is really taking a big hit because of the bird flu.

"Prices are up. You can still get eggs for $5 to $6 for a dozen and upwards of $9 or $10 if you are buying organic eggs. But until we can get this under control, there will be a limited supply of eggs," said Bill Mattos with the California Poultry Foundation.

At Victoria Pastry Company in North Beach where they make all the cakes and cookies by hand, eggs are a key ingredient.

"Since late October prices are high, high, high. Today I was wondering when this is going to stop. We are worried we don't get any eggs. What are we going to do?" said Merie Belluomini, co-owner of Victoria Pastry Company.

At Mo's Grill, customers come for the omelets as well as the burgers.

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The restaurant goes through a case of 180 eggs a day - two cases a day on the weekends.

"Most of the eggs we use are for omelets," said Hossein Malek.

Mo's Grill owner Hossein Malek says the cost of a case of eggs is way up.

"It's gone up five times," he said.

Usually, these organic eggs cost twice the price as regular eggs. But Malek says today, all these eggs cost about the same.

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Malek tells ABC7 News that when he can't find regular eggs from his supplier, he tries to buy organic eggs.

"So what I do is look around for it at Costco," said Malek.

Many people wonder how long the egg shortage will last.

According to Bill Mattos with the California Poultry Foundation, the supply of California eggs has dropped 40% compared to this time last year.

"With our cage free rules, or farmers are working very hard to gill those cage free operations. And get your fresh eggs to the market at soon as possible. I'm hopeful that will start happening in the next month and by Easter, see a good supply of eggs at a good price," said Mattos.