Egg prices hatch on growing demand

During the last week of October wholesale price of egg was Rs 4.02. Demonetisation and a host of other factors resulted in the drop in egg rate. While egg rate goes up from mid December due to increase in demand for eggs for making cakes and and the cold weather, it did not happen this time. Despite drop in wholesale egg rate, the packing and handling charges deducted by traders from the wholesale rate went up to 40 paise to 50 paise per egg.

“Drop in production has resulted in an increase in demand due to the shortage in the market,” National Egg Coordination Committee’s (NECC) Namakkal Zone Chairman P Selvaraj said. 

He told DT Next that traders, after deducting 20 paise per egg towards packing and handling charges, farmers were now getting Rs 3.55 per egg. “Cost of production is around Rs 3.30 to Rs 3.40 an egg,” he added. On the other hand, the average per day egg production in Namakkal has dropped drastically in recent months. According to statistics from the NECC, this zone was producing 2.73 crore eggs a day in January. This is a drop by 27 lakh eggs a day, from 3 crore eggs in January last year. “Production was as high as 3.58 crore eggs a day in September 2012. Daily production has dropped by 85 lakh eggs a day since then due to various reasons,” Dr Selvaraj said. 

Industry experts hinted that egg rate could go up by about 10 paise in the next few days and remain at that price for some time. They also expressed concern over the market price of egg that is poised to touch Rs 5 apiece in the kirana shops. “When it touches that market, there is a consumer resistance, though wholesale price is much lesser,” poultry farmer L Krishnan said and hoped that it does not take place in the near future.