this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
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Summary

Finland has declined a U.S. request to export eggs amid a severe American shortage caused by bird flu.

The Finnish Poultry Association cited the lack of prior trade agreements and complex regulatory hurdles. Even if exports were possible, Finland’s limited egg production would not significantly impact the U.S. crisis.

Other European nations, including Sweden and Denmark, also face difficulties meeting U.S. demand, while Europe grapples with its own egg shortages.

The U.S. has turned to countries like Turkey and the Netherlands for supplies as bird flu remains a global issue.

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[–] DeadNinja@lemmy.world 6 points 1 hour ago

Did you say thanks ? No? Go lay your own...

[–] rockettaco37@lemmy.world 66 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

This is what happens when you burn all your bridges. I'm American myself and to be brutally honest, I hope most of the free world will continue to refuse requests to export to us.

[–] melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

yeah, it sucks, I wish we had this cheap protein, but, like... americans need to suffer. they need to suffer, and they need to know it's their leader's fault.

[–] Jimmyeatsausage@lemmy.world 8 points 2 hours ago

The suffering is almost a guarantee, but I'm not holding my breath on anyone that doesn't already do so holding Trump accountable for shit.

[–] Paddzr@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

Explain to me like I'm 5... Can we not just stop butchering chickens for few days and get them to lay eggs to "catch" up? Or are those chickens too far removed from normal chickens that they no longer lay eggs?

[–] houseofleft@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Key thing to bear in mind is that we think of "chicken" as a single animal, but industrial farming has selectively bred chickens into very different camps.

Meat chickens grow very big very quickly, and are killed for meat long before adulthood. You'd need to pause production a long enough time for them to grow into adulthood, then they would eventually lay eggs, but at a much slower rate than egg chickens, and requiring a lot more food (because of how big they are)

[–] dojan@lemmy.world 5 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

They're being killed because of the avian flu pandemic that's currently going on. Dead poultry generally doesn't lay eggs.

You still have legumes available.

[–] BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Consider the 🥜

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 24 points 4 hours ago
[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 53 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

How about we introduce export tariffs on eggs instead.

[–] whyalone@lemm.ee 18 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (2 children)

This egg trade is insane, not a single euro country could help USA here simply because the us has a 340m+ population and that being said, it would take the entire eu support/ supply in order to meet the demand of the USA

[–] Noizth@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 hour ago

It would take a sacrifice from EU countries to help an "ally" whose leadership will then threaten them, put more tariffs and make unfair deals when is your turn to request help.

[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Don't know how it is in Europe, but here in Canada we have marketing boards to ensure that we're always producing more food supply than needed. Because it's kinda bad to have less food than needed, so we want to have a little bit of margin to ensure that doesn't happen. BTW this is why food is a contentious trade issue with the US, we don't want to be dependent on food production that has no safety margin.

Anyway, it's very possible countries are producing more than they need and could supply the US with the excess. It may not meet all of the demand in the US, but it would help bring down the price a bit. Yes the prices wouldn't be the same as it was before the Avian flu outbreaks, but it would be lower than it is now.

It's something that could happen if Trump didn't burn all the goodwill with all of the allies of the US. According to Trump "We don't need anything they have." So you will pay more for things, because Trump thinks you don't need them.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 1 points 1 hour ago

We have the Common Agricultural Policy which has the quadruple goals of a) keeping the EU, on aggregate, self-reliant while b) simultaneously stabilising domestic production with subsidies because technically it would be cheaper for many producers to buy land abroad and then import, c) avoid crashing other region's agricultural sector with hyper-efficient production, that's why occasionally there's production caps in place, and finally d) environmental and animal husbandry concerns. You can actually get money for letting land fall fallow and stuff, there's all kinds of fine-grained subsidies when it comes to things like improving barns, it's a whole shebang.

Just checked and eggs were never subject to production quota regulations, so (aside from product safety and animal husbandry rules) it's a pretty open market. The pdf linked there shows that we're massive exporters, notable exception is imports from Ukraine though those are nowhere close to massive. Eyeball-comparing egg production vs. population numbers and assuming every member states eats about as many eggs/capita as the other things look very well distributed, DE, FR, NL, PL, ES, and IT over-produce but it's not like the smaller countries would have no capacity at all. Ukraine would actually fit in with that, also big country, also net exporter.

Overall we have exactly one shortfall: Protein crops. Mostly animal fodder in the form of South American soy, the rest, much smaller portion, is Canadian lentils. Not a desirable situation overall but one the one hand it's not critical to feeding people (though there'd suddenly be much less meat) and South America really likes the income so the commission is in no hurry to address it. Canada just simply seems to be made for growing lentils, lots of right climate and soils for it, and that in wide flat areas.

[–] samus12345@lemm.ee 99 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

"Okay, but you have to become the 20th province of Finland."

[–] ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world 30 points 5 hours ago (4 children)

I accept Finland's terms. Now that I'm a Finnish citizen, I would like to move to the country proper.

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 1 points 21 minutes ago

now you can go to the doctor without losing your home!

[–] samus12345@lemm.ee 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

...And just like that, Finland now shares a border with Russia on both sides of the globe. I'm sure the Finns are great friends with Russia, so Russia has no reason to worry that the vast military arsenal of the former USA is theirs now.

Also, does this mean the president of the former USA will be punished for his crimes? I'm not familiar with Finnish law, but it has to be better than ours.

[–] Senseless@feddit.org 13 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (3 children)

First you have to learn proper Finnish swearing. For that I suggest "My summer car" on steam. As proof you'll have to get all achievements.

[–] InvertedParallax@lemm.ee 4 points 3 hours ago

Peska perkele vittu.

I'll book my flight.

[–] techclothes@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago
[–] TrenchcoatFullofBats@belfry.rip 3 points 3 hours ago

Perkele, kun vituttaa tämä helvetin krapula, mutta jumalauta, pitäähän sitä silti saatanan kauniina kesäpäivänä mennä pihalle perseilemään ja hitto soikoon, nauttia elämästä—vaikka päässä jyskyttää kuin paholaisen pikkuserkku vetäisi siellä Lordia rumpusoololla.

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[–] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 16 points 5 hours ago

Do not help this toxic nation! America is evil.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 43 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

Seems strange to give eggs to a country who talks of just taking over countries left and right.

Maybe rotten eggs would be more suitable.

[–] painfulasterisk1@lemmy.ml 15 points 6 hours ago (4 children)

I'll provide eggs, if Musk-Trump steps down. Rinse/repeat as needed.

[–] kreskin@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

This particular US government can't be negotiated with. Just like with Russia, its always a mistake to even enter into conversation with them or to let their diplomats land at the airport. All that can be done is to not talk to them for the next 45 months.

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[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 269 points 8 hours ago (7 children)

Nobody should send us eggs. Nobody should give us anything, given the government we have now

Orangeboi wants transactional, so give him transactional. Hold the US state department over the barrel as long as you can. Hold our feet to the fire. Make the negotiations as torturous and hostile as possible. Squeeze us until you see blood. Get absolutely everything you can out of any “deal” you make with us - it’s the “art of the deal”, after all.

There are huge swaths of Americans and political leadership that now really need to find out, because they’ve been fucking around and ruining things for far too long.

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 4 points 2 hours ago

The US is going to be begging for more than just eggs in a few months. California is one of their biggest agricultural states and they have no water; Trump had them empty their reservoirs in an idiotic attempt to fight the wildfires earlier this year. Plus, the whole country is dependent on Canadian potash to fertilize their crops.

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[–] slaacaa@lemmy.world 26 points 6 hours ago
[–] LaterRedditor@lemmy.world 15 points 6 hours ago (1 children)
[–] RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com 11 points 4 hours ago

Did they even say thanks just once?

[–] killeronthecorner@lemmy.world 9 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I bet Finland feels Oeufal

[–] Astra@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 hours ago

On the contrary, I bet they feel eggcellent

[–] ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 52 points 7 hours ago (4 children)

Egg prices aren’t high solely because of bird flu. They’re high because of regional monopolies and a price fixing cartel. The largest egg producers are seeing record profits.

I hope it’s clear that I’m not saying bird flu doesn’t exist or affect prices. I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist. But if I had to guess, I’d say it’s 10% bird flu and 90% companies raising prices in unison because they can blame bird flu. If it were just bird flu, the companies would be losing money.

NB: it feels very weird to call them “egg producers” because hens are the actual egg producers. Egg distributors, maybe? In any case, the distributors are doing fine and their only competition in most regions are small, organic farms whose eggs were already $7 a dozen. It’s just the low end of the market that’s gone crazy.

[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 hours ago

I’d say it’s 10% bird flu and 90% companies raising prices in unison because they can blame bird flu.

Why yes, there was no consequences during covid so the companies are gonna keep doing this until there is consequences.

Remember the bread price fixing in Canada too, yeah, feels like such a long time ago

[–] GiantChickDicks@lemmy.ml 9 points 5 hours ago

This is important to bring up. If we want to stop being subjected to this kind of fuckery, we need to unite and vote with our dollars. I love making egg-based dishes, but there are other options. The real problem is most people struggle with the idea of making sacrifices to get what they want later. Just don't buy eggs as an average consumer if they are that unaffordable.

In the United States, we are spoiled for choice when we shop. We're used to being able to get what we want when we want it, and that's led to a sense of entitlement. Eat other things, get creative. Look up effective substitutions for eggs in baking.

We don't have to take this. So don't.

[–] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 23 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

it feels very weird to call them “egg producers”

Chicken pimps?

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[–] Sunshine@lemmy.ca 52 points 8 hours ago (4 children)

Every country should avoid doing business with Trump’s regime because he will screw you over either way.

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[–] boaratio@lemmy.world 12 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

The part that kills me about all this is that there is a bird flu vaccine, but US poultry farmers aren't allowed to use it because then we couldn't export eggs to other countries. There was a really good CBS Sunday Morning segment about this.

[–] piecat@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago

then we couldn't export eggs to other countries

Why?

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 48 points 8 hours ago (3 children)
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