Forget the flow of illegal drugs and a heated tariff war between Canada and the United States, eggs have been reported to be high in-demand and costly in the United States, as travellers scramble to purchase Canadian eggs to take back home.
Nationally, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency reports there’s been a 48 per cent increase in eggs being detained at ports of entry this fiscal year from October 2024 to March 2025.
“When compared to the same time last fiscal year,” says Michael Mascari, agency Public Affairs officer.
Importation of raw/fresh eggs into the U.S. is generally prohibited due to concerns about diseases such as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza and Virulent Newcastle disease.
Travellers are prohibited to bring in fresh eggs, raw chicken, unprocessed avian products and/or live birds into the U.S.
Travellers are encouraged to declare all agriculture products to CBP officers and agriculture specialists, “failure to declare may lead to potential fines and penalties,” the agency notes.
“Most of the eggs being confiscated by CBP agriculture specialists are from travellers who declared the product and then abandoned them without consequence. There have been very few cases of people purposefully evading the inspection process/failing to declare the product. When that happens a $300 civil penalty is applied, and the eggs are seized. The vast majority of egg intercepts are from travellers who declare them when asked,” adds Mascari.
According to the agency, for importation coming from the southern border, the San Diego Field Office had the highest increase of 158 per cent for eggs being detained during this fiscal year from October 2024 to February 2025, when compared to the same time last fiscal year.
As for the northern border, the Detroit Field Office, “where most of the eggs are coming in from Canada,” is seeing an increase of 36 per cent for eggs during this fiscal year for the same time period compared to last year.
“We don’t record ‘smuggling,’ rather interceptions of eggs. Canada also has the same restrictions for importation of raw/fresh eggs into the U.S. that is generally prohibited due to concerns about diseases. Canada does not have Virulent Newcastle disease currently,” says Mascari.
There was no information regarding the Coutts border crossing in particular.
