As the price of eggs continues to rise, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials are reporting a spike in people attempting to bring eggs into the U.S. illegally from Mexico, where prices are lower.
The jump in sightings of the contraband product can be best explained by the high price of eggs in the U.S., which soared 60% in December over a year earlier. A combination of the deadliest bird flu outbreak in U.S. history, compounded by inflationary pressures and supply-chain snags are to blame for the higher prices that shoppers are seeing at the supermarket.
It's forcing some drastic measures: some grocery store chains are limiting how many cartons customers can buy.
And some people are going as far as smuggling eggs from out of the country, where prices are more affordable, and risking thousands of dollars in fines in the process.
A 30-count carton of eggs in Juárez, Mexico, according to Border Report, sells for $3.40. In some parts of the U.S., such as California, just a dozen eggs are now priced as high as $7.37.
Shoppers from El Paso, Texas, are buying eggs in Juárez because they are "significantly less expensive," according to CBP spokesperson Gerrelaine Alcordo. Most of those people arriving at international bridges are open about their purchase because they don't realize eggs are prohibited.
"Generally, the items are being declared during the primary inspection and when that happens the person can abandon the product without consequence," Alcordo said. "There have been a very small number of cases in the last weeks or so where eggs weren't declared, and then subsequently discovered during inspection,” Alcordo added. If the products are discovered, agriculture specialists confiscate and destroy them, which is routine for prohibited food. Those people are fined $300, but the penalty can be higher for repeat offenders of commercial size illegal imports.
In San Diego, customs official Jennifer De La O tweeted this week about "an increase in the number of eggs intercepted at our ports." Failure to declare agriculture items, she warned, can result in penalties of up to $10,000.
Bringing poultry, including chickens, and other animals, including their byproducts, such as eggs, into the United States is prohibited, according to CBP.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture also forbids travelers from bringing eggs — with the exception of eggshells and moon cakes, in certain instances — from other countries because of certain health risks.
Eggs from Mexico have been prohibited by USDA since 2012, based on the diagnosis of highly pathogenic avian influenza in commercial poultry.
EDITOR’S TAKE:
Isn’t it simply amazing what economic imbalances can do, be it state to state or country to country. In this instance, eggs are becoming contraband between the higher priced U.S. and lower cost in Mexico. It makes perfect sense that the U.S. has restrictions on smuggling eggs due to diseases such as HPAI. These restrictions also apply to other products, but right now the major ag related problem appears to be eggs. This is precisely how we know people are becoming more and more desperate to simply keep food on the table when they resort to illegal egg imports that could result in dramatic fines. Hopefully, egg production in the U.S. will return to normal soon and the cross-border attempts to smuggle such products will subside.
