By MATT LINDSEY

POTSDAM – With eggs now costing about twice as much as they did a year ago, both large institutions and families in St. Lawrence County area feeling the effects.

At SUNY Potsdam, PACES Director of Dining Services Pat Gray says the college is paying $78 for a carton of 30 dozen eggs this year and paid $34 last year. Liquid eggs that cost $25 last year now have increased to $80 the same product.

For families, a dozen eggs retailed for about $1.50 last spring but now sells for $3 or more per dozen in area grocery stores.

The Avian Influenza epidemic that lead to nearly 50 million chickens being killed this spring has been blamed for the price spike. But despite the drastic reduction in the number of chickens, Gray said “there should not be any supply issues,” Gray said.

Although he said the college has been told they will receive about the same amount of eggs as last year, PACES will not get any extra if they go over the quota.

“For now we are not passing the cost on to the customer,” Gray said. “We are trying to wait it out.”

Gray says the federal government has promised the college they will get their allotment of egg products this year but will not receive any additional products.

“Right now we can not get any hard boiled eggs at all,” he said.

PACES would normally order prepared hard-boiled eggs and use them in egg salad, salads and other products. He said they would order them because the job of preparing the eggs is labor intensive and it was most cost effective.

With no hard boiled eggs being available from PACES’ supplier Renzi, based in Watertown, the college is not offering egg salad as often as it used to.

Egg salad sandwiches are being offered one or two times a week now compared to five times last year, he said.

Gray said he has heard that egg production could be affected for 12 to 18 months or even longer and that Avian Influenza is still on-going even though it is not in the news as much.