It is normally a coming and going of customers at the Stipkip farm vending machine in Uden. But the customers who often come to the poultry farm with an egg carton, are disappointed. Due to bird flu in the region, the machine will be closed for at least four weeks from Thursday.
Fortunately, Stipkip himself is not affected by the disease. “But we stick to the rules” says owner Bart van Stiphout. And they prescribe that the sale of eggs is prohibited within a radius of ten kilometers from the place where bird flu broke out.
Stipkip had announced the closure of the farm vending machine on Facebook. But by no means everyone follows that social channel, so customers come to the vending machine all day long. “No eggs? I didn’t know that. Then no eggs for a while,” says a customer. Almost everyone understands the measure.
Yet there are also suspicious customers. “I don’t believe it all about the bird flu. It must be an exaggeration,” remarks a man who stands in front of the closed vending machine with an empty egg carton. He himself grew up on a farm and finds the measures ‘heavily exaggerated’.
Seventeen years ago, Stipkip was the first farm in Uden with a vending machine for customers to buy eggs. It started with four trays of eggs. “The vending machine is now much larger and there is a storm with customers,” says Ellie van Stiphout. “Of course the closure is a disappointment for Stipkip, but the damage is manageable,” thinks Ellie. She expects to lose several thousand euros in income.
Ellie does have an explanation for the popularity of the machine. “The eggs are farm-fresh and a lot cheaper than in the supermarket. If this outbreak of bird flu continues, the vending machine can open again in a month.” Stipkip itself has long been happy that they themselves have not been affected by the bird flu.