No yolk as egg shortage continues

TASMANIAN poultry producers are still experiencing high demand as the number of eggs on the shelves of major supermarkets in the state remains low.

Australia has been experiencing an egg shortage following an avian flu outbreak on the mainland, which the Federal government estimates resulted in the euthanasia of about 1.8 million chickens last year.

The disease has not spread to Tasmania but egg producers in the state have been unable to increase production. Tasmanian Pastured Poultry Producers member and Rookery Creek Eggs owner Denis Giasli said before the outbreak around half of the eggs sold in the state came from the East Coast of Australia.

“Because Coles doesn’t have a distribution centre in Tasmania, nearly all of their eggs come from the mainland,” Mr Giasli said.

“Eggs that would normally come from the East Coast aren’t coming in.

“All the egg producers I know are at their egg selling capacity.” Mr Giasli said the nature of poultry production meant it was nearly impossible to increase supply quickly.

“My business is relatively new.

“We’ve been working on this now for about three years and it’s going to be another 18 months before we hit our target.

"The establishment of Rookery Creek Eggs was also made more difficult by red tape."

In Tasmania we’ve probably got the most stringent enforcement of egg regulations anywhere in the country,” Mr Giasli said.

“It’s probably the hardest place in Australia to start an egg business.”

Mr Giasli said the most significant barrier in Tasmania was the system used to tier poultry producers.

“In Victoria, for example, you are classed as either a backyard, middle-tier or large commercial producer.

“In Tasmania we don’t have that middle tier, so basically as soon as you have more than 50 chickens you become a commercial producer.

“It doesn’t matter whether you have 51 chickens or 200,000 chickens; they expect the same level of infrastructure and regulations in terms of packing eggs.”