More Details about Eggs

Dear Consignment Members (Especially Egg Producers),

The Consignment Program has been experiencing a new and strange phenomenon with eggs these past two months. For the first time in the history of the program, we are receiving a surplus of eggs! It is actually not a bad problem to have; it is great to have too many eggs than too few. However, to address the questions of concerned egg producers I have written a couple of updates to keep you (the producer) in the loop.

In regard to egg payments. Due to the surplus of eggs, we do not sell all the eggs within the week we receive them from the producer. It has been taking us (on average) two weeks to sell a producer's batch of eggs. Therefore full payment for a batch of eggs (as some of you may have noticed this past month) takes two weeks. For example, a producer who may give us 12 dozen eggs one week, will receive a payment for 6 dozen the following week and then another payment for the remaining 6 dozen the next week. This payment pattern usually only applies to producers who give us more than 5 dozen eggs.

In regard to the egg surplus in the future. First and foremost please rest assure... we will sell your eggs. We enjoy your eggs, and our customers do too! At the moment we are looking for other avenues to sell the eggs that come through consignment. We are looking at other markets in Tucson and possibly restaurants. In future years we may have to put a cap on the number of eggs we can receive, but for the time being we are trying to still accept most all of the eggs from our producers and find other avenues to sell them. It is our hope that we will find other avenues to sell our eggs- for in doing so, we would be able to further integrate our local food system into our Tucson community and continue to provide support for our local producers.

We will keep you updated with the latest on the egg situation in the future. For the time being, however, please continue to bring us your eggs, and we will notify you if we need otherwise.

Thank you all for your eggs and your support! If you have any questions please contact Sarah Parsons.

-Sarah Parsons
Consignment Program Coordinator