Mexico scrambles to cope with egg shortage A city worker sells
eggs at government subsidized prices as people line up outside
the city truck in Mexico City, Friday, Aug. 24, 2012. The
Mexican government is battling an egg shortage and hoarding that
have caused prices to spike in a country with the highest per-
capita egg consumption on earth. About 11 million chickens were
slaughtered after a June outbreak of bird flu. / AP
Photo/Alexandre Meneghini (AP) MEXICO CITY - The Mexican
government is battling an egg shortage and hoarding that have
caused prices to spike in a country with the highest per-capita
egg consumption on Earth. A summer epidemic of bird flu in the
heart of Mexico's egg industry has doubled the cost of a kilo
(2.2 pounds), or about 13 eggs, to more than 40 pesos ($3), a
major blow to working- and middle-class consumers in a country
that consumes more than 350 eggs per person each year. That's
100 more eggs per person than in the United States. Egg prices
have dominated the headlines here for a