Egg prices stay stubbornly high, why have they become the new rising star of price hikes

Comprehensive report from San Nong Zhi Tong Che: Since July, egg prices have continued to rise, becoming the price-hike "new elite" after pork. Statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics on the 14th show that among food prices in September, egg prices rose 14.2%. Various regions have taken multiple measures to stabilize egg prices, and they have recently fallen somewhat, but are still up more than 10% compared with last year.

The "small, scattered, numerous" current state of farming makes it hard to withstand rising costs. Only by raising the level of large-scale laying hen farming can prices truly "stay calm."

100 yuan buys about 30 fewer eggs

At the Hongbianmen farmers market in Guiyang, Mr. Chen bought 100 eggs at 0.85 yuan each. Having catered banquets for many years, he sighed: "I have never bought eggs this expensive."

Mr. Chen did the math: for eggs of the same size, last year the most expensive was about 0.7 yuan each, and this year it is 0.85 yuan. With the same 100 yuan, one buys about 30 fewer eggs than last year.

Shen Jiang, information department director of the Wulichong agricultural and sideline products wholesale market in Guiyang, said that since July, wholesale egg prices on the market have risen, currently about 10 yuan per kg, more than 10% higher than the same period last year, and falling only slowly.

Monitoring data show that since the end of June, national egg prices have shown a continuous upward trend. They began to fall after the Mid-Autumn Festival, and compared with September 12, prices on October 7 dropped 3.2%. Among them, Shandong, Jiangsu and Beijing had the largest declines; Guizhou had the highest price in the country, 13.5 yuan per kg. At present, national egg prices are still significantly higher than the same period last year, with the October 7 price up 15.7% year on year.

The National Bureau of Statistics released data on the 14th showing that in September, CPI rose 6.1% year on year. Among food prices, egg prices rose 14.2%, contributing to an increase of about 0.12 percentage points in the overall price level.

Not only consumers, but vendors also feel that egg prices this year are too high and that there is little money to be made.

Vendor Wu Kaimei said that when buying from the wholesale market, each box of 360 eggs costs 230 yuan to 250 yuan. Transporting them to the farmers market costs 50 yuan per trip, 20 yuan higher than last year. After excluding broken ones, the average price per egg is 0.76 yuan. For this reason, vendors divide eggs into three types, large, medium and small, priced at 0.7 yuan, 0.8 yuan and 0.85 yuan each, so that they can make a little money.

Laying hen farming is "small, scattered, numerous," hard pressed to resist rising costs

Reporters found that the main reasons for the overall rise in egg prices are increased production and operating costs; laying hen farming being "small, scattered, numerous," failing to form economies of scale and having weak risk resistance; and low self-sufficiency levels in some areas, keeping prices high for a long time.

"The most important factor in this year's price increase is the rise in production and operating costs." Zhu Guoan, general manager of Guizhou Liujiang Livestock and Poultry Co., Ltd., said that starting this summer, Guizhou Province suffered its most severe drought for the same period since 1951. Affected by this, the price of corn, the main feed for laying hens, is currently above 2,500 yuan per ton, up nearly 20% from the same period last year.

Zhu Guoan said that according to the industry calculation method, the production cost of eggs is a coefficient of 3.8 multiplied by the price of grain per kg, about more than 9 yuan per kg. When sold to the farmers market, it is more than 10 yuan per kg. After deducting rising costs such as transport and packaging, net profit is about 0.5 yuan, nearly halved from when sales are good.

Vendors report that the egg industry has long been in a state of thin profits, and the "small, scattered, numerous" pattern leaves laying hen farmers with poor risk resistance. Because economies of scale have not been formed, once costs rise or egg prices fall, some farmers sell off their laying hens, leading to reduced supply.

According to Zhang Ruiwen, head of the animal husbandry station of the Guiyang Municipal Agriculture Committee, after Major Heat each year, laying hen egg production drops noticeably, while the risk of disease outbreaks increases. Spending on heat relief, cooling and epidemic prevention all raises feeding costs, and egg prices often trend upward. Especially before the Mid-Autumn Festival, mooncake production reaches its peak, demand for eggs increases greatly, market supply becomes tighter, and prices rise noticeably.

In addition, supply falling short of demand in some areas and prices remaining high for a long time are also among the factors driving the overall rise in egg prices. For example, in Guizhou Province, an egg-importing area, local output cannot meet demand within the province, causing its price base to be higher than that of some other provinces.