Why don't chicken farms benefit from rising egg prices? Labor and feed costs soar

Why have eggs seen a roller-coaster market this year? Now that egg prices are rising, retailers and wholesalers complain that they are not making money. What about the situation at chicken farms?

The reporter came to a chicken farm in Xiqing District, Tianjin. The owner, Old Man Jin, told the reporter that although prices are high now, losses in the first half of this year were too great, and breaking even is already a struggle, let alone making money. He said helplessly that it was precisely because chicken farming was profitable in 2011 that chicken farms expanded blindly, so in the spring of 2012, egg prices fell sharply and many chicken farmers lost money.
Jin Dianxiang, manager of Tianjin Fengyuan Chicken Farm, told the reporter: This is mainly small independent farmers. Anyway, for small independent farmers, judging from central Hebei, half of them must have dropped out.
With many chicken farms and large inventories, prices naturally have to fall. But at present, across the country, a large number of small households have withdrawn, and the total volume has decreased by about 20 percent. Therefore, fewer spring chicks were hatched and fewer were placed. This also coincided with strong market demand for eggs in winter, with supply falling short of demand, so prices will keep rising, and this high price will last until May or June next year.
Jin Dianxiang, manager of Tianjin Fengyuan Chicken Farm, said: Autumn and winter are not the season for restocking, because raising chickens in autumn and winter is relatively difficult, and it is hard to make technical breakthroughs. So most people at this time, even if they want to raise chickens, have to wait until next spring to restock in large numbers.
Manager Jin told the reporter that the common egg shipping price at chicken farms is now around 4.4 yuan/jin to 4.5 yuan/jin, a bit better than in previous months, but costs are also increasing. A worker's wage is 3,000 to 4,000, and from last year to this year, feed prices have remained high, with soybean meal at 3,900 per ton and corn at 2,100 to 2,300 per ton. So although egg prices are rising now, some large-scale farmers are still struggling.