RENVILLE - Avian influenza struck the Rembrandt Enterprises barns in Renville in May 2015, forcing the company to depopulate 2 million birds from the egg-laying operation.
It began restocking its barns on the eastern edge of Renville in February 2016.
As it approaches the one-year anniversary of the restocking effort, the economic shadow left by the avian influenza outbreak of 2015 is still felt.
Production has not returned to full capacity. The barns are holding birds, but not the 2 million they once held.
For competitive reasons, the company said it is not releasing how many birds are currently in the barns or when they might be fully restocked. The barns are stocked to meet egg production needs based on current demand, according to Jonathan Spurway, vice president of marketing and optimization with the company in Spirit Lake, Iowa.
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Spurway said egg prices are very low at this time, and demand is down, both as a consequence of the avian influenza outbreak. The outbreak had reduced the availability of eggs, and caused the price of eggs to rise.
Many producers relying on eggs and egg products responded by reformulating or replacing eggs in their products, Spurway explained. Egg producers are hoping that the current low price for eggs and eggs products may help win many of these customers back.
Another factor in low egg prices is the process of restocking. As they replaced their birds, the producers further increased the supply as compared to demand, causing egg prices to decline to record lows, Spurway said.
Rembrandt has minimized the economic impact of the current egg market on the Renville area. It has long-term contracts with many of its suppliers, Spurway said.
And even though the Renville barns are not fully stocked, it requires basically the same staff to care for the birds and manage production operations.
The company had announced during the avian outbreak that it was laying off 39 workers at the facility due to the depopulation process. Yet the loss of jobs in the Renville area was minimized by a company decision to continue the egg-processing operations at the plant. Eggs produced elsewhere were trucked to the Renville facilities and the operations - and employment - continued.
Renville Mayor Janette Wertish said it is difficult to measure the economic losses to her community due to the avian influenza outbreak. She pointed out that Rembrandt continued the egg processing operations and had also brought a lot of workers on site to help with the depopulation and cleaning process. With the restocking of the barns last year, employment levels appear to be back as well, she added.
"It's an important economic piece for the community,'' said the mayor.
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Spurway said that producers manage their costs as well as possible as cycles in supply and demand occur. "So we'll go through this commodity cycle as you see in every other food ingredient business,'' he said.
