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It's a mechanical process that's quite the curios and we got to see it first hand when plant manager Irvin Plett showed our cameras how it works. Cherisse Halsall has this story.

Irvin Plett, Manager, Country Foods
"An egg it if it rolls, it will always roll towards the pointed end so if it rolls, it will go that way. So that makes it go against the plastic wall there and that will make the egg stand up once it comes here. And so the pointed and we'll go first into the filter eggs should always be stored, pointed and down."

That's the machine that puts your eggs into their grocery store crates. It's been here since 2011 but this plant at Country Farms was in operation long before that and they've been packaging Belize's eggs for over 60 years.

Irvin Plett, Manager, Country Foods
"Well, it basically started when the Mennonites first moved to Belize in 1958, but it was very small back then, and it was joined by FDC Farmers Trading Center. And then around 97, the farmers separated and they moved to this location here."

"It's a lot of hard work, but we do it because we enjoy it. We have sales guys out there, they say one of them, especially said we work long days, but I'm here because I enjoy making a difference for the country and I enjoy making sure that the people of Belize are well-fed and that they have safe food to eat."

But as we told you last night that hard but enjoyable work is under inflationary stress, that's because along with everything else even chicken feed has undergone a price hike.

Cherisse Halsall:
"We know corn has skyrocketed. That has to have had an effect here."

Irvin Plett, Manager, Country Foods
"Yes, it has. Corn price was prior to the pandemic. It was like 24 to 28. And right now it's $38 a bag. So it's up quite a bit."

Cherisse Halsall:
"And that is the basic feed, is it?"

Irvin Plett, Manager, Country Foods
"Yes, it is the basic feed we use just during the production period. We use a bag of feed for a crate of eggs. And then we still have to buy the pellets, the little baby chick and feed it until it starts producing after or after about four months, we've in 4 to 5 months it would start production."

Cherisse Halsall:
"So how sustainable is this business right now given all of the stressors that you've endured over the last year?"

Irvin Plett, Manager, Country Foods
"I think we're here. We're here to stay. We are working on things to bring down costs."

"We put up a solar system to bring down the electricity cost. And there are things that we will be looking at in the future to bring down our costs where we can so that hopefully, we can bring down the egg price, even though things are even other prices are raising."

And in the wake of the 50-cent egg that made last week's headlines Belize's poultry association is asking retailers to have mercy on the public.

Armando Cowo, Manager, Belize Poultry Association
"We need to realize that we're all in this together. Farmer, consumer, middleman, retailer, everybody. And if you raise the price of hay, it will send shockwaves through the industry as the press can appreciate. And we can actually collapse an industry because people supply eggs. If people supply eggs and if I'm out, the farm will do. He'll shut down because he's not really making it to sustain losses like that. So he'll stop producing eggs. Then if you stop producing eggs, then what? Then the feed industry will suffer because they will not be selling feed."

"And the ripple effect was backwards to the grain farmer, to the importers of the premixes. Everything will just start to go down until you reach a critical point where you cannot bring back the industry."

The wholesale price of eggs currently stands at 30cents per egg. Retailers will understandably add 5 to 10 cents to that price in order to ensure a profit.

Still, a 20 cent profit has been deemed unacceptable by poultry experts considering that the farmer is only making 3 cents per egg.