SHORTAGE

U.S. Needs European Eggs After Bird Flu

First time in more than a decade.

The U.S. is set to begin importing egg products from the Netherlands for the first time in more than a decade as commercial bakers and producers of processed food face an egg shortage over an outbreak of bird flu. Five Dutch producers will begin selling products to American producers within days, a spokesman for the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service told the AP on Monday. About 47 million birds have been infected by the H5N2 virus, including 35 million hens that account for 80 percent of the eggs that are processed for commercial use. The shortage has doubled prices for egg products used by bakeries and manufacturers over the past few weeks. Canada was previously the only nation allowed to import eggs to the U.S.