No eggs for Christmas cookies – prices much higher

Eggs are running short in Switzerland just before Christmas! It’s the best time of the year when families sit around the kitchen table and make cookies together. Eggless Christmas? unthinkable! For example, the dough for Mailänderli, the most popular Swiss cookie, needs three pieces.

Problem: There is so much demand for eggs right now that the demand can no longer be met by domestic eggs. Imports will be required to meet high demand in December. However, the imported egg quota will already be used in 2022. The Federal Department of Agriculture did not increase it.

Additional Customs Fees

Eggs can therefore continue to be imported. However, as Blick confirms, retailers do incur additional customs fees that they pass on to their customers. At Coop, imported eggs are up to 50 percent higher. 15 barn eggs can be bought for CHF 5.50 instead of CHF 3.90. This means an increase of 41 percent. For 10 Prix Guaranteed Pic-Nic Eggs, you now pay CHF 4.95 instead of CHF 3.30.

Eggs are getting more expensive at Migros. “We will have to pass on price increases to our customers. A spokesperson says the price increase will affect all fresh eggs coming from abroad. In the end, Migros promises that “We will not increase prices despite the increasing demand and insufficient production of Swiss eggs”.

“The situation is worrying”

Migros is now bringing Swiss eggs, which are not on the shelves in normal times, to the shops in response to the trouble. Because they are too small or otherwise deviating from the norm.

Gallo Suisse, the Swiss egg producers’ association, was alarmed. “The situation in Europe is alarming. Never before have so many chickens had to be killed as a precautionary measure due to bird flu. Due to rising costs, many farmers have also given up or reduced production.

Experts expect the egg market to calm down only at the beginning of the year when there will be new import quotas.