Texas supermarket asks customers to curb egg buys due to U.S. shortage

[June 05, 2015] By Jim Forsyth

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - The largest supermarket chain in Texas, San Antonio based H-E-B, is asking its customers to limit egg purchases due to an outbreak of avian flu in the Midwest that has crimped egg supplies nationwide, an official said on Thursday.

"H-E-B has put up signs on our egg shelves throughout all of our stores, asking our customers to limit their purchases to three cartons of eggs per purchase," said spokeswoman Dya Campos. The company operates 350 supermarkets in Texas and in northern Mexico.

She says the avian flu outbreak has led to a "constriction in the supply" of eggs available to the food industry and the company does not want restaurants and commercial institutions coming in and stripping its shelves of eggs.

The United States is grappling with its biggest outbreak of bird flu on record, which has led to the culling of 40 million birds. The virus has been confirmed on commercial farms and backyard flocks in 16 U.S. states and in Canada.

Some egg-dependent companies are contemplating drastic steps that include importing eggs from overseas or looking to egg alternatives.

Fast food chain Whataburger, which has major operations in Texas, said earlier this week it is cutting back on the hours it offers breakfast at its 770 locations in 10 states because of an egg shortage.

"We don't know why other restaurants haven’t been affected by this shortage yet, but it sure has affected us. Our primary egg supplier was one of the hardest hit by this shortage," it said in a statement on Monday.

(Writing by Jon Herskovitz)

[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.