EGGS A LUXURY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 33, 9 February 1939, Page 12

EGGS A LUXURY

AUSTRALIAN SHORTAGE

OVERSEAS COMMITMENTS

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, February 3.

Eggs have become a luxury in Sydney. The price for new-laid is now 2s 6d a* dozen retail, and it is expected to mount higher before Easter.

Eggs will have to be rationed in New South Wales and Victoria for months to come, yet regular supplies will continue to go overseas. The reason is that the Egg Marketing Boards in the two States, through no fault of their own, have sold forward and have been caught short.

Anticipating the usual surplus at this time of the year, the boards, towards the end of last year, sold eggs abroad for forward delivery at advantageous prices. Then came the heat wave and bush fires, which not only killed thousands of hens, but drastically reduced the production of those that survived. In New South Wales the drop in production has been 33 per cent.

The boards, as a result, have found themselves in the position of having no surplus to meet their overseas commitments. The only way they can meet their forward sales is by sending abroad eggs which normally would be consumed here and rationing supplies to local consumers.

In Melbourne it was announced that until August retailers will get only 25 per cent, of normal requirements.- Rationing will not be so drastic in Sydney, as some "of the overseas firms to which the board contracted to sell have relieved the board of part of the contract.

A leading Victorian egg producer received a telegram from a Tasmanian merchant stating: "Can you supply 5500 dozen eggs for visiting Australian fleet in fortnight's time?" The reply was: "Impossible to supply." So it seems that the Navy is not going to get eggs with its bacon.