US egg carton shortage has subsided

The U.S. egg carton shortage that started as a result of the pandemic has improved and producers shouldn't have any issues with Easter packaging.

dominiquejames | BigStock.com
dominiquejames | BigStock.com

The U.S. egg carton shortage that started as a result of the pandemic has improved, explained Phil Laughlin, vice president of strategic accounts with Dolco Packaging, which is a manufacturer of polystyrene foam egg cartons in the United States.

“The panic buying that was triggered a year ago due to COVID-19 is no longer a factor.  People are returning to restaurants, particularly outdoor eating in some geographies. This has been gradually shifting the consumption balance back to pre-pandemic levels between foodservice and retail volumes,” said Laughlin. 

When asked how the egg carton shortage was eliminated, Laughlin said, “A return to a more balanced and predictive demand (retail consumer purchases vs. foodservice) means that carton supply is no longer an issue. Consumers typically purchase eggs in 12- or 18-count carton quantities. Foodservice purchases 30-count filler flats. What happened last year during the lockdown was the vast majority of the foodservice volume suddenly was 'transferred' to retail overnight, which required different packaging formats, so the supply chain took a little time to react.” 

This is good news with Easter right around the corner, however, Laughlin explained that he still doesn’t believe seasonal demand will be back to its normal. “Demand is no longer outstripping production. We have the capacity to fill the pipeline. However, we don’t think egg consumption will be back to pre-pandemic levels for this year’s Easter.  People are still being cautious, still social distancing and limiting holiday events,” he said. 

Regardless, Laughlin explained that brand owners and retailers have prepared for Easter in advance. 

“We certainly learned a lot during the peak we saw in the market. Therefore, we continue to improve our flexibility and manufacturing efficiencies to be able to respond to the market needs,” he said. 

Another shortage is not expected because the company does not expect to see another surge in demand like they did last year. “Most egg carton producers worked on making their production more efficient during the beginning phase of the pandemic. That meant we could also boost productivity. Obviously, those improvements are still in place should we need to rely on them,” he said. 

COVID is not hindering production 

Employee impact is significantly less now that it was in the beginning of the pandemic, he explained. 

Dolco Packaging implemented a significant number of COVID-prevention related processes and procedures to help keep our employees safe and our production up and running. We have done a good job with that and as a result our employees are healthy and there are fewer family-related 'call outs' from work that could impact our production.  We have no issue with operating the production lines in our five plants,” he concluded. 

 

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