Iowa’s Senators, Governor and State Agriculture Director are asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to include egg producers in the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. Iowa Poultry Association CEO and Executive Director Kevin Stiles says the request is very much appreciated by his group’s members as several of them are suffering financially due to the impacts of the pandemic.

He says flock sizes have shrunk since the closing of several restaurants during the early parts of the pandemic and it will take time to reestablish that market.

Stiles says any aid that could be offered would be helpful, even through the SBA Paycheck Protection Program which had excluded agriculture earlier.

Stiles says what’s been particularly devastating for Iowa’s egg industry is that nearly 70 percent of the state’s layer flocks produce for the liquid egg market which has been hit hard by the pandemic.