Before Christmas, Norwegian stores may run out of eggs, warn representatives of the largest supermarket chains. As in spring this year, the only solution may be import.
This would be the second “egg crisis” this year. Egg supply problems first appeared in supermarkets before Easter, with problems peaking in May.
The volume of production for the local market is decided by the Nortura cooperative, which estimates the demand for a given year and provides supplies on this basis. This year, the forecasts of Norwegian chicken farmers have once again failed to come true.
Import rescue
In this situation, sellers point to import as a solution to a possible crisis. “We sell Norwegian products whenever we can, and foreign products only when we have to. This time we have to use supplies from Denmark,” a representative of one of the supermarket chains told the Aftenposten daily.
Norwaywhich is not part of the European Union, applies its own sanitary and customs regulations, especially when it comes to importing food products. Importing some of them, e.g. potatoes, is completely prohibited, and as part of protection against salmonella, Oslo has introduced stringent requirements for foreign suppliers.
To prevent further supply problems, the Food Safety Authority (Mattilsynet) has concluded that eggs from farms in other Scandinavian countries are as safe as those from Norway.
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