Hay River's Polar Eggs thanks pandemic's bakers for 'very, very high demand'

One business in Hay River, N.W.T.,is thriving during the pandemic by responding to a big spike in demand for eggs.

Staff at Polar Egg's grading facility in Hay River's industrial area are working around the clock to process hundreds of boxes full of eggs every week, sometimes staying as late as 2 a.m. to get all their orders filled out.

They've seen demand increase during the pandemic, from their regular 400 boxes per week to roughly 600.

Ryan Shank, manager of Polar Egg's grading facility, says eggs have always been a household staple, but now, during the pandemic, they're the base of a new hobby that many have picked up.

"There's not much to do so people tend to bake," Shank told CBC. "And when you bake, you need eggs. So the demand has been very, very high."

The company'seggs stock Hay River grocery stores and others across the territory, like in Fort Smith and Fort Simpson.

Now, they're filling out orders for customers as far north as Inuvik.

The eggs, laidat the Polar Egg barn just outside of Hay River, are loaded into the grading facility through a small cable. Then, a handful of staff wash the eggs, check them each by hand and sort themby weight. Once that's done, the eggs are packaged into cardboard cartons for distribution.

The number of people, combined with steam from the washing machine, can rise the temperature in the small room to over 30 C.

Still, Shank said there's always a good sense of teamwork no matter how busy they get.

"When we would work late ... our owners were very good in terms of buying the crew lunch," he said. "They bought us a brand new $500 Bluetooth speaker so we could blast our tunes."

Demand has slowed down a little bit, but growth for the company hasn't.

Shank said Polar Eggs is looking to expand its barn and grading facility sometime later this year to continue processing more orders.