Chicken and egg prices rise, pork takes the blame: who is responsible for the meat price increase
If you go to the farmers' market these past couple of days, you'll find that both broiler chicken and egg prices have gone up. In previous years, egg prices rose in midsummer because hens had poor appetites in the hot weather and egg production dropped, but this year's egg price increase has nothing to do with hot weather - it's the “fault” of rising pork prices.
Pork price increases have something to do with eggs too? Many people must find that hard to understand.
Sanhuang chicken wholesale price
⟦NL> Rose more than 40 percent in one month
Yesterday morning, a Qianjiang Evening News reporter came to the Zhejiang Zhonghe Farmers' Market. “Free-range local chicken is 25 yuan per jin, up 5 yuan per jin from a month ago,” said the woman running the poultry stall. At the egg stall next to it, the most ordinary eggs were already selling at retail for 6 yuan per jin, while half a month earlier, egg retail prices at major farmers' markets in Hangzhou were still only around 5 yuan per jin.
At the pork stall around the corner, pork belly was now selling for 17 yuan per jin. “More than a month ago it was only 13 to 14 yuan per jin. We don't dare sell too expensive now either - most of our customers are regulars, and if it's too expensive, fewer people buy, making it even harder to earn money,” the woman complained.
At the Xinhua Road Farmers' Market, the owner of a poultry stall said chicken prices had risen 20%-30% from last month to now. Mid-range local chicken now sold for 15 yuan per jin, compared with 12 to 13 yuan per jin last month. Sanhuang chicken saw the biggest increase: “At the cheapest it was only a bit over 3 yuan per jin, and now it's risen to 7 yuan per jin,” the owner said.
At the Pingfeng Street Farmers' Market, the owner of a poultry chain store surnamed Zeng complained that because chain stores cannot raise prices at will, while broiler chicken purchase prices had risen by about 2 yuan per jin, business was hit considerably - especially Sanhuang chicken, which had no profit left at all.
Zhang Hongliang, chairman of the Sanyuan Live Pig Cooperative in Qujiang District, Quzhou City, told a Qianjiang Evening News reporter that their cooperative's current wholesale price for live pigs was 9.6 yuan per jin. “In early August it peaked at 10.1 yuan per jin, and now it has basically stabilized.” In late June, the live pig purchase price was still only about 7 yuan per jin. In other words, in just two months, the live pig purchase price rose 37%, and at its peak rose 44%.
The reporter learned from the Hangzhou East China Poultry Trading Center that poultry wholesale prices had also risen fairly quickly recently. “A month ago, the wholesale price of Sanhuang chicken at our market was still only 4.5 yuan per jin, and now it has risen to 6.5 yuan per jin, up 44%. Free-range chicken was only 8 or 9 yuan per jin last year, now it's 13 to 14 yuan per jin, and at farmers' markets it sells for more than 20 yuan per jin. The wholesale price of autumn duck also rose from 6.5 yuan per jin a month ago to 7.3 yuan per jin now,” introduced Gao Tianrong, chairman of the center.
Eating less pork and switching to chicken
Drives chicken prices up
Analyzing the reasons for the poultry price increase, Gao Tianrong believes there are mainly two: first, pork has risen too sharply recently, so many people have switched to eating poultry, pushing prices up; and second, since last year, many places have banned poultry farming, so supply has to be shipped in from other regions, raising costs.
“Jiande has fewer laying hens. We estimate that eggs produced in Jiande now account for only about 5% of the Hangzhou market,” Qian Minghuo, president of the Hangzhou Poultry and Egg Industry Association, told reporters. A year or two ago, eggs produced in Jiande still accounted for about 20%.
However, Qian Minghuo believes the main reason broiler chicken and egg prices rose recently is still the pull from rising pork prices. “Spent hens (hens that have passed their egg-laying peak) went for 4 to 5 yuan per jin in previous years, and during bird flu outbreaks, they couldn't be sold even at 2 yuan per jin. In late May and early June this year they were still only 4.5 yuan per jin, but since August prices have kept rising, reaching 6.5 yuan per jin last week - something not seen in recent years.”
Because the market for spent hens was looking up while egg prices had been at a loss all along, many poultry farmers culled their laying hens early. It is understood that on July 9, the egg purchase price in Jiande was still only 3.5 yuan per jin, and by late July and early August it rose to 4 to 4.1 yuan per jin, just enough to break even with a slight profit. “From February to July this year, the national average egg price was 3.6 yuan, a constant loss,” Qian Minghuo said. “Generally, after a laying hen reaches 16 months old, egg production drops noticeably and it becomes a spent hen. Recently, to reduce losses, many farmers even sold laying hens 13 to 14 months old.”
According to Qian Minghuo's estimate, in the past month the number of laying hens nationwide decreased by 100 million to 150 million. Although egg prices have now risen considerably - yesterday the Jiande egg purchase price reached 5 yuan per jin, yielding a profit of about 1 yuan - the reduction in laying hens is already a fact. “It is estimated that the current chicken and egg price situation will last about two months,” Qian Minghuo believes.