Egg Supply Chain

In a few weeks you will start seeing quite a few sales on eggs. Why? Eggs are one of the main staples in the Easter holiday tradition. Everyone gets together the night before Easter and colors their eggs a wide range of colors to put in their Easter baskets for the Easter Bunny to hide. An egg seems like such a simple food item, very few people ever wonder what all had to happen in order for them to be able to buy their eggs from the grocery store. If there were suddenly no eggs to color for Easter I am sure everyone would then want to know. If it even possible to think that the grocery stores would have no eggs? The answer is yes! In order for that carton of eggs to be on the shelf of the store it must travel the supply chain. A supply chain is a system of organizations, people, technology, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities transform natural resources, raw materials and components into a finished product that is delivered to the end customer. Egg would seem like such a simple product that there really couldn’t be that much to the supply chain given that the chicken lays the eggs, the farmers puts them in cartons and a truck delivers them to the store. Eggs don’t go through processing like most other food products but still there can be a lot to them depending on what type of eggs you buy and where from. Many people still get theirs from the grocery stores but a rising trend is to purchase them farmers markets or directly from the farmer. Going directly to the farmer for your eggs is becoming more popular because people want to know where their food is coming from and want to know that the animals are not being mistreated or given hormones. In order to discuss the supply chain for eggs one must first ask the questions,Which came first the egg or the chicken? When you attempt to do a supply chain for eggs this is without a doubt the first question you would need to