The scramble to find eggs in Hawaii has begun, as restaurants, bakers and shoppers at local supermarkets find them to be in short supply. The shortage has pushed retail prices up, with some restauranteurs reporting that they are paying double what they paid a year ago.

At Safeway and Foodland, signs appeared on shelves this month limiting customers to two cartons each due to “limited supply” and “an unexpected shortage on eggs.”

At Whole Foods Market, a sign by empty shelves said the store is “currently experiencing difficulty sourcing eggs that meet our strict animal welfare standards.” Customers are limited to three cartons each.

Industry experts say the highly pathogenic avian influenza, referred to as HPAI, is behind the nationwide egg shortage due to a record loss of millions of sickened egg-laying hens, including those culled upon discovery of outbreaks.

A recent U.S. Department of Agriculture report said grocers were holding prices at record or near-record highs. The supply, meanwhile, remains the greatest challenge in the marketplace as HPAI continues to impact commercial table-egg layer flocks, USDA said.

The consumer price index for eggs is about 37% higher than a year ago, with an average price of $4.15 per dozen, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Hawaii, prices at local supermarkets are more along the lines of $8 to $10 per dozen eggs.

While there has been no detection yet of H5N1 bird flu in a commercial poultry flock in Hawaii, the supply of mainland eggs has dropped significantly, leading to shortages.

“The restaurants are definitely feeling it,” said Sheryl Matsuoka, executive director of the Hawaii Restaurant Association. “Restaurants are seeing the prices go up, and it has doubled from last year. They’re afraid it’s going to triple if this continues.”

She said eggs are a staple ingredient for many restaurant dishes, including those that serve breakfast and brunch, as well as for baked goods, desserts and ice cream.

Hawaii restaurants this year will have to adapt to these higher food costs, along with the rising costs of transportation, utilities and employees, meaning potentially higher prices will likely be passed on to consumers.

“We try to keep our prices down,” she said. “We already work in very small margins. Restaurants can’t help it if the cost of the staple goes up.”

For Sweet Revenge, a Honolulu-based business selling baked goods, the egg shortage has been challenging.

“It’s been rough,” said owner Kathy Masunaga, who has modified some recipes to use fewer eggs.

Earlier this month, Masunaga made an early-morning run to Costco Iwilei to find the entire egg section wiped out, and every pallet gone. Costco has since placed a limit on purchases, and she now picks up two of the 50-egg packs on those runs.

She used to have someone buy eggs from Petersons’ Upland Farm in Wahiawa, but the family-run business closed early last year after 114 years. Masu­naga was saddened by the closure, saying, “We miss them.”

Masunaga uses eggs for almost all of her baked goods, whether it’s for quiches, pastry cream fillings, or the final brushing of egg whites on pie crusts.

“Those of us who are old-school, we don’t like the bagged eggs or frozen products,” she said. “We want to go with fresh, shell eggs. I haven’t been forced to go there yet.”

Lane Muraoka, owner of Big City Diner, said he expects the egg shortage to last for months to come.

Eggs are a big feature for his restaurants, which serve breakfast every day, along with loco moco, eggs Benedict and fried rice with a fried egg, sunny-side up, on top.

“We support the farmers here, we buy local eggs,” he said. “But prices have gone up because there’s a severe shortage of U.S. eggs.”

Muraoka said he is grateful that no local egg producers have been hit with H5N1 and hopes they will not be. But the reality is they now face an uptick in demand from customers who were buying mainland eggs, and there are not enough farms in the state to keep up with the demand.

“We’ve been trying to control it the best we can and not raise prices,” he said. “But, of course, every business and restaurant is going to have to at some point because it could be six-plus months before they can raise the chicks to lay the eggs … and that depends on if the government can control the virus.”

Hawaii recorded its first outbreak of H5N1 in November at Susie’s Duck Sanctuary in Wahiawa, which resulted in the loss of 70 rescued pet ducks and geese that either died or were euthanized.

The USDA categorized them as a backyard flock, and based on the virus genotype, determined the source of infection was likely spillover from migratory birds.

Some wild birds, such as a duck that tested positive for H5N1 on Oahu’s North Shore, can carry bird flu without appearing sick and easily spread it to poultry.

The bird flu appears to have spread to the neighbor islands, as H5N1 has been detected in Hilo and Lihue wastewater treatment plant samples; however, no outbreaks among birds or poultry have been confirmed on Hawaii island or Kauai.

To date, no infections have been confirmed in any of Hawaii’s commercial poultry operations.

In the rest of the U.S., however, more than 50 commercial flocks and 13 million birds have been affected in the past 30 days, according to the USDA. Over the past week, eight confirmed outbreaks in five states, including California and Ohio, resulted in the loss of 8.3 million egg layers.

Health officials continue to say the public health risk to humans remains low, that eggs are safe to eat, but recommend consumers avoid raw milk.

The Hawaii Department of Agriculture has urged local farms to increase biosecurity measures — such as preventing interactions with wild birds — to protect their flocks. State agencies have also called for a voluntary pause on interisland movement of birds in Hawaii for a 90-day period.