MOSCOW, March 17 (Bernama-SPUTNIK/RIA Novosti) -- The Finnish authorities, to whom the United States has turned for eggs amid their shortage in the country, have refused to provide eggs amid possible difficulties with bureaucracy and inspections, reported Sputnik/RIA Novosti citing a Yle broadcast report.
The US authorities earlier asked Denmark and several other European countries to export eggs to the US market amid their shortage in the country.
The Finnish Poultry Association told Yle that the US had approached the Finnish authorities on the issue of egg exports. The association's executive director, Veera Lehtila, told the broadcaster on Saturday that she did not see the possibility of exporting such products at the moment, since Finland had not yet held negotiations with the US on market access. This long process may require lengthy checks, she added.
"Launching exports is not a simple matter since there are no agreed rules in place," Yle quoted Lehtila as saying.
The association's head also emphasised that the country did not have permission to export eggs to the United States, and a lot of bureaucratic processes and research would be needed to possibly allow the transportation of eggs, since the country had never exported such products.
"Millions of birds have had to be culled there because of bird flu. We have four million laying hens in total in Finland. The amount we could export would not solve their egg shortage," Lehtila said.
The United States has faced a sharp rise in egg prices due to the bird flu epidemic. As RIA Novosti found out, among the G20 countries, eggs were most expensive in the United States in March, although at the end of last year the highest price for them was in Australia.
Earlier, Eurostat data showed that wholesale prices for chicken eggs in the European Union rose to 268.5 euros per 100 kilogrammes, reaching an all-time high against the backdrop of the spread of bird flu in the union's countries. At the same time, EU imports of this product jumped by almost a third last year. In addition, earlier in the week, official statistics showed that the cost of eggs in the United States increased by 59 per cent year-on-year in February, with month-on-month growth estimated at 10.4 per cent.
--BERNAMA-SPUTNIK/RIA NOVOSTI
