Bill proposed to allow small egg producers to sell ungraded eggs wholesale

TYLER – A potential bill is being proposed which would expand the sale of ungraded eggs, according to our news partner, KETK.

If passed, Bill 1864, which is in the House Agriculture and Livestock committee, would expand the sale of ungraded eggs. Currently, the only way you can sell wholesale is to grade your eggs. Which are inspected by a certified grading station.

“It’s not a safety issue. It’s not that a grade B egg is not as good as a grade A egg. It just has to do with size and weight and things like that,” State Rep. Brent Money said. Representative Money serves on the committee and says this would open a lot of doors for small East Texas egg producers.

“Any time you can expand the market and make it easier for them to sell their products, it’s better for their business and it’s better for the consumer,” Money said.

The Farmer’s Garden in Winona has been following the bill through the legislative session. They believe that if it passes, it would be a huge blessing.

“We would be able to know, hey, they need 20 days in a week or whatever, and we can grow our operation to kind of match that demand. It would let us grow faster,” The Farmer’s Garden owner, Bethany Reynolds, said.

The farm sells about 20 dozen eggs a week. They have had restaurants reach out to them for eggs, but say not having a grading system has hindered their operation.

“We’ve looked into the grading for our farm to be able to use that, but it’s kind of a complicated thing to figure out to enter, and it’s expensive,” Reynolds said.

If SB 1864 makes it to the House floor and passes, it will allow The Farmer’s Garden to sell 500 dozen eggs a week. Not only raising their profit, but also allowing them to bring their farm to your fork more easily.

“We’ve got to protect our farmers. And one of the ways that I think that we do that is by making sure that we are not putting unreasonable regulations and barriers in place for them to get their products from their farm to the market,” Money said.

“Representative money,” says one point of contention right now, is how many eggs a farmer can sell a week, as large commercial businesses are pushing for less to be allowed. Money wants to keep the text as it is and get it on the floor. The House committee will have until May 27th to get the bill to the House floor, and voted on by May 28th. If it doesn’t make it out of the committee before the deadline, the bill will die.