Saturday, November 29, 2014

Egg bargains from the United States

Ontario supermarkets are offering eggs on special, including Metro Inc.'s Food Basics stores pricing them at $1.88 a dozen for Grade A Large in Burnbrae Farms packages.

The fine print reveals they are "Product of the U.S.A."

Loblaws is specialing eggs from the U.S. at its Shoppers Drug Mart, Zehrs Markets and other stores.

That's leaving Canadian-produced eggs gathering dust at these stores.

Apparently the officials at the Department of International Trade couldn't see that CAMI International Poultry Inc. of Welland was short of chicken for the customers who wanted Hong Kong dressed birds, but now are once again allowing of tractor-trailer loads of eggs from the U.S. to flood the pre-Christmas market.

The result will be the same as it has been for years - egg producers will, in about a month's time, be paying a tax on their marketings to cover the high cost of diverting eggs from the retail to the processing markets.