'$1 per egg': Northern Mariana Islands struggles with egg shortage as prices skyrocket

The Northern Marianas (CNMI) Islands are facing an egg due to the spread of bird flu in the United States, sending businesses and the community into panic.

According to data from the US Department of Agriculture, the cost of eggs has skyrocketed across the US mainland, with the average price of the breakfast staple rising to US$8 per dozen.

However, the US commonwealth in the Pacific is being hit much harder, with reports that when the new shipment of eggs come in next week, it will cost $12 a dozen - effectively $1 per egg.

Shirley's Coffee Shop general manager Maro Dela Torre said the recent rise in egg prices has significantly impacted the restaurant and has driven up food costs.

It has come to a point where the shop is now implementing a $1 surcharge on their dishes with eggs.

"Due to the shortage, we've been buying as much as we can to continue serving our popular dishes that include eggs," she said.

"We want to keep providing our customers with the meals they love. I'm not sure if the bird flu situation in the US will be resolved soon, so I'm hoping that the CNMI can find alternative sources elsewhere."

Kylie's Bakery store manager Rosalie Suguitan said the continued increase of egg prices has affected some of their products.

"For couple of months, we already adjusted our production because of the economy and now, this egg price will continue to give us cost challenges.

"As much as possible we don't want to increase our prices and add another burden to our valued customers. As you know, we would like our price to be reasonable to them."

One of the casualties is that Kylie's Bakery has temporarily stopped selling hardboiled eggs to partner with its popular arroz caldo lugaw, a Filipino porridge.

"Selling $1 per boiled egg will be too much," she said.

Meanwhile, Puerto Rico Bento also opted to not sell tokneneng, a popular Filipino street food made by deep-frying hard-boiled eggs coated in orange batter often served with a sweet and sour sauce or spicy vinegar, and puto, or steamed rice cake, according to its owner Angelica Lastimado.

"At the start of egg shortage and rise in the cost of eggs, we stopped serving tokneneng or even boiled egg," Lastimado said.

"We don't want to sell the boiled egg for more than a $1 or raise our prices, so we just decided not to sell it until egg prices and availability are back to normal.

"We are not selling our bestseller puto as egg is one of the key ingredients to make this. It's sad as a business because egg is an everyday ingredient in our dishes and specialty food.

"We are lucky enough if we can find one to be used for some of our dishes but still it's very expensive to serve," she said.

Herman's Moden Bakery recently hiked the prices of its cakes by 5 percent, but incoming general manager Joseph Lee Pan Guerrero said it's not just due to the rise in the prices of eggs.

"Eggs is one of the ingredients in most of our baked goods," Guerrero said.

"The price increase is only for our cakes due to other ingredients that continue to escalate beyond our control."

He said suppliers in the US are having difficulty securing ingredients for a number of reasons and production.

"What generally takes a few weeks to secure ingredients, now takes two months' lead time for that matter. Shipping cost as well is another factor on top of supplies."

Guerrero said Herman's Moden Bakery will not see a drop in the prices of ingredients anytime soon, but what it's doing now is sourcing within the Asian market for the availability of much-needed ingredients.

"The price of our cake products is not purely on eggs, but on the other ingredients. For as much as we do not want to increase our prices on cakes, we had to marginally, based on the cost of our ingredients," he said.

Due to the H5N1 avian influenza, the price of fresh and frozen eggs is at an all-time high and it is difficulty to secure supplies on island and from supplier in the U.S., acknowledged Guerrero.

"It does affect Herman's Bakery, but we did manage to secure enough inventory to sustain our production for the time being while we wait on the next shipment from the U.S."

Guerrero said the cost of a dozen or tray of eggs on island has jumped threefold making it much difficult for the consumers let along the baking industry.

"We are more reliant on frozen eggs for our baked goods because of the cost for fresh eggs. Tan Marikita Café will be affected with the shortage of fresh eggs.

"We will continue to monitor the market in the U.S. and purchase what is readily available for baking usage."

Plumeria Steakhouse owner Steve Jang also laments the high cost and shortage of eggs on island.

"Eggs are good source of protein and so by not having on island hurts the community," Jang said.

"Thank God, I have stocks to last few weeks and that's about it. Unfortunately, the rise in egg prices is compounded by other expensive issues like the [Commonwealth Utilities Corp.]. So, profit margin has gone down drastically."

Asked if this has forced his hand to implement a similar hike in Plumeria Steakhouse's prices, Jang said fortunately no.

"We cannot and we never did. Our prices remain same. Why hasn't the chicken price rose? I don't get this. If this keeps going up which I think it will be, then we will make portions a little smaller. But, the price for our food will remain same. The impact of the bird flu [influenza] definitely has hit everyone," he said.

One the largest wholesalers of eggs in the CNMI, JCT Enterprises, said the bird flu outbreak in the U.S. mainland has really done a number on the islands' eggs supply, according to vice president vice president Roman "Bo" Palacios.

"Bird flu is really, really constraining supply which has led to both scarcity and sky rocketing prices. I think people are already anticipating the supply to get worse so they're stocking up but it's not frequent due to supply. It's also going to be more difficult to sell because the prices are just through the roof. As of now, most of Joeten is out of eggs," he said.

Ann Bang, a mother of two, jokingly said due to the scarcity and high price of eggs these days, she's seriously thinking of raising chickens.

"Eggs are an essential food for our table every day. When the eggs arrive, people hoard eggs in case of a shortage.

I'm really concerned about this issue because I can't imagine my family's diet without eggs! I'm trying to replace eggs with tofu or beans instead of eggs during a shortage, but my kids want eggs!"

Usually, Bang said her family consumes a dozen eggs a day, but now, they only consume a dozen eggs every two days.