Navigating the 2025 Wholesale Egg Shortage: Challenges and Solutions for Foodservice
How the shortage of wholesale eggs is impacting foodservice businesses
Hands up if you’re dealing with issues around the egg shortage. Eggs are such an important staple in most kitchens, whether for home cooks, catering businesses, restaurants, cafes, and food manufacturers. But what’s causing the wholesale egg shortage? And if home cooks are feeling left behind by empty shelves at the supermarket, foodservice businesses are certainly feeling the absence of reliable egg supply.
Look up wholesale egg suppliers here.
Avian flu outbreaks
Firstly, following H7N8 avian influenza outbreaks in late 2024, the necessary culling of close to two million chickens in Victoria, NSW, and the ACT has resulted in the current wholesale egg shortage.
The good news
Customers are heading into their favourite cafes to enjoy a great breakfast featuring eggs. Unfortunately, cafes are just as vulnerable to the egg shortage! Some have introduced new menu items to tempt customers to try something else. Smashed avo on toast is as popular as it ever was!
Farmers are doing their best to restock with layer hens, and egg production is expected to slowly return to normal within six months.
The transition to free range egg production
Consumers are demanding more in terms of animal welfare, and Australia will be phasing out conventional caged eggs in many states by 2036. To get a jump on this, producers are moving their cage egg production to barn-laid or free-range. While this is underway, there is some interruption to the usual flow of eggs to consumers and businesses.
The good news
A return to normal levels of wholesale egg production is likely by around mid-2025. In the meantime, foodservice businesses need to continue to use their creativity and ingenuity.
Wholesale eggs are on the shopping list of all foodservice operators, unless they adhere to a vegan menu.
How to adapt to the egg shortage
As foodservice professionals, you’re no doubt already onto the following suggestions.
- Source alternatives – Can you connect with an alternate wholesale egg supplier who is able to meet the demand?
- Re-engineer recipes – Could your chefs re-engineer recipes to reduce the number of eggs required?
- Menu adjustments – Are you using egg substitutes? Are you absorbing the increase cost of wholesale eggs, or passing it on to consumers? See if you can come up with smaller portion sizes of egg-heavy dishes to manage costs and for the eggs you have to go around.
- Long-term strategy – The egg shortage highlights the vulnerability of relying on a single ingredient. Consider diversifying your menu and sourcing strategies in the long term to avoid future disruptions to egg supply. This could include exploring plant-based alternatives or building relationships with multiple wholesale egg suppliers.
- Minimise waste – With higher prices for wholesale eggs, minimising waste becomes even more critical. Consider strategies for careful portion control, proper storage, and creative use of leftover egg whites or yolks.
So, from bird flu outbreaks to the switch to free-range farms, it's clear the egg shortage has really shaken things up for restaurants and cafes. It's been tough, no doubt, but the good news is that the industry is finding ways to adapt. By getting creative and staying flexible, businesses will get through this and keep serving up those delicious egg dishes we all love. Be kind to your wholesale egg suppliers, as they are surely dealing with the upheaval at their end as well.
