There’s a shortage of eggs in Bethel-area grocery stores, and in rural areas milk is hard to find on the shelves. Store managers are blaming avian influenza, more commonly known as bird flu. They say that mail delivery is causing delays as well.
The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that nearly 58 million commercial and backyard birds have been affected by the bird flu across the country this past year, including the main supplier of eggs for the Alaska Commercial Company (AC).
“I know in Washington State, about a week and a half ago, they had to kill over 2 million chickens, laying hens because of it,” said Vice-President and General Manager of AC, Walter Pickett. “Our primary egg supplier was devastated and basically destroyed their entire laying population. So it's going to take a while to recover from that. We are trying to outsource and find other suppliers for eggs, but eggs are very limited right now.”
That lack of inventory means that egg prices will continue to rise, but Pickett said that he is optimistic and predicts that things will stabilize within three months. He noted that this isn’t the first time the industry has had to deal with bird flu.
Grocers are also having problems shipping perishables. This is in part due to the limited number of planes that fly out to Bethel.
“We use the subsidized federal bypass mail to move products out to rural Alaska to keep the cost down,” Pickett said. “And right now the big challenge we're having is with our larger air carriers. And we've had a number of challenges, or they have, I should say, with aircraft. I know several of the carriers have had several of their planes going through heavy maintenance cycles, which basically takes an aircraft out of rotation for a month or more. And they do this on an annual basis, so that reduces the fleet size. And then when they have mechanical issues, which several of them have had, it takes more planes out of commission.”
The backup caused by this bottleneck in planes means that dairy, produce, and shelf-stable grocery products that would normally be mailed in are delayed.
Pickett said that it’s one of the worst backups he’s ever seen and he blames it primarily on the lack of “lift” for those air carriers; essentially, their capacity to carry freight. And because it’s impacting Bethel, it’s impacting all of the communities served by the Bethel airport.
Right now, Pickett said that AC is prioritizing perishable products.
“Anything chilled, anything produce, meat, deli, bakery, frozen food, we’re asking them to prioritize that,” Pickett said. “Because, obviously, those perishable goods are in the highest demand.”
Bypass mail is typically busiest, and therefore slowest, during the holiday season. Because that has passed, delays should ease. And Pickett said that he’s hearing from carriers that more aircraft are getting back in the air.
“We’re hoping that we will be seeing significant improvement this week as those large jets start delivering products in the Bethel market. So I would say, if everything goes from what we’re hearing, it should be within the next 24 to 72 hours that you’re going to see a lot of freight arriving,” said Pickett.
