GREEN BAY (NBC26) — Eggs prices are still rising ahead of the Easter weekend. A local farmer offers advice and a Green Bay restaurant shares its plan for customers.
- Darren Vollmar of Ledgeview Gardens says the spike in the result of challenges on poultry farms.
- From this year, eggs prices have increased by 50 cents and could continue to rise.
Breakfast and brunch spot, The Creamery Downtown, said they won't push the rising costs on to customers
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
The price of eggs is still near historic highs. I spoke with a local farmer about the snowball effects that lead to these higher prices in stores.
Ledgeview Gardens general manager Darren Vollmar says he used to sell eggs.
"When we were raising our own hens all those years ago, we were charging $3.50 a dozen for eggs," Vollmar said.
Vollmar says he got out of the egg business to focus on vegetables, but he's aware of the challenges egg farmers face including avian flu amid high demand.
"There were issues that took laying hen numbers down, which took egg production down," Vollmar said.
According to federal reserve data, the average costs for eggs nationwide is about three dollars. That's almost a 50 cent increase since last December and those numbers could continue to rise.
In Green Bay, The Creamery Downtown said they don't put those high prices onto their customers.
"There's always a work around, I don't think necessarily our customers and our guests should get, you know, they should pay for it," said Jim Jansen, general manager of The Creamery Downtown.
With the Easter weekend ahead, demand for eggs will still remain high.
Vollmar says an option for people looking to buy cheaper eggs -- local farms.
"When they produce too many eggs they can't eat, they start selling them," Vollmar said. "They'll sell them cheap, they just need to cover the cost of their feed."
He says the chickens they do keep around are for a different purpose.
"We just have them for our kids to start to learn business practice, animal husbandry and know how to take care of animals more," said Vollmar.
Jansen said business has been good, one of the reasons they can maintain their prices. He told me that they've already been receiving many calls for Easter brunch reservations.
