Tesco joins Asda, Lidl in rationing eggs

Supermarket Tesco has joined its peer Asda and Lidl to ration eggs to three boxes per customer, stated recent reports, to tackle acute shortage owing to rising costs of poultry farmers and an avian flu outbreak. 

According to recent reports, customers at Tesco checkout are now limited to buying three boxes of eggs. Lidl and Asda reportedly introduced such rationing last week. At the time, Tesco said it had “good availability” with no limits, The Guardian reported. It said it is working hard with its suppliers to ensure a good supply of eggs, but has taken the step as a precautionary measure. 

After some supermarket restrictions were announced last week, the director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium (BRC), Andrew Opie, said: “While avian flu has disrupted the supply of some egg ranges, retailers are experts at managing supply chains and are working hard to minimise impact on customers. 

“Some stores have introduced temporary limits on the number of boxes customers can buy to ensure availability for everyone.” 

Britain’s largest-ever avian flu outbreak has led the government to tell farmers to keep all poultry and captive birds indoors at a time when farmers were already reeling under soaring energy costs in recent months, and along with spiked feed cost owing to the price of wheat rising due to the war in Ukraine. Farmers have also raised the issue of low prices offered by the supermarkets due to which many farmers are moving away from the business. 

There have been 252 cases of the virus since the outbreak began in October last year, with 118 of them coming since 1 October this year alone. Millions of birds have died or been culled in the last year. 

The government announced on Monday (20) that a bird flu outbreak had been found at a farm near Barnard Castle, Durham. All birds at the site will be culled, and a 3km protection zone and 10km surveillance zone have been set up.