Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

The price of eggs


rotuts

Recommended Posts

I got a delivery today - extra large eggs from a local (MA-based) distributor were $3.98/dz and the large eggs were $3.89/dz.  Heavy cream, on the other  hand is $65/case of 12 quarts (Hood brand for any of the locals who want to know).  another distributor wants $110 for the same case!   On a local Bakery Owners FB page, someone was asking if EggBeaters could be used in baking recipes and I don't know what EggBeaters are to know why they'd be any cheaper than shell eggs?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Anna N said:

If there is any bright side to this, at least for North America, then it is that the eggs we are getting ought to be very fresh. 


I still think that most eggs are a bargain but price comparisons mean nothing if you don’t know how the chickens are housed/raised. 

The only bright side i see is, im more inclined to hit up a TSC and buy chicks, and raise my own hen's that lay eggs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm paying about $3.50 USD here in Costa Rica, and I thought I was having to pay a lot. I don't know for sure but I would suspect that most of these are from caged hens. If I can, I try to buy from a vendor at the Farmers Market that I have known for years and his chickens are all free range. His eggs are always larger and fresher and cost about $3 a dozen.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Eggs here sold by weight at most places, but the organic farms sell their eggs by the dozen. 

 

I paid 52 pesos for a dozen brown organic yesterday; they were uniformly large size.  About 2.75 USD. 

 

My guess is they are considerably less at local fruterías when sold by kilo.  Eggs are not graded here by size; you just go through the large cartons on display and pick the ones you want.  Eggs are not refrigerated here.  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

 

Can You Find Eggs Here or There? Can You Find Them Anywhere?

 

An avian flu outbreak and increasing costs of fuel, feed and packaging have contributed to an egg supply shortage and high prices in some parts of the country.

 

 

The Times is on it.

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oddly , generic Large white this AM @ TJ's 

 

were 3,49.  a week ago # Marketbasket :  3.99

 

MB has always been cheaper than TJ's

 

on the brighter side , both places had full shelves 

 

of all varieties.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This could have gone in Food Funnies, but it seemed appropriate to this thread as well. From Canada's equivalent of The Onion:

https://t.co/8EKBx4u249

 

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
  • Haha 6

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Thanks 2

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just think how many foods rely on eggs! Pretty soon a bottle of Hellmann's might be worth at least one mink coat. 

Edited by Anna N
To change worse to worth! (log)
  • Like 1
  • Haha 2

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry, but avian flu is not the reason. And collusion is nothing new among the major egg producers.

 

Quote

Egg prices more than doubled for consumers last year — going from $1.788 in December 2021 to $4.250 in December 2022 for a dozen large Grade A eggs. Industry-aligned consultants and leading egg producers have blamed this dramatic increase on “supply disruption, ‘act of God’ type stuff.” As we detail below, however, the real culprit behind this 138 percent hike in the price of a carton of eggs appears to be a collusive scheme among industry leaders to turn inflationary conditions and an avian flu outbreak into an opportunity to extract egregious profits reaching as high as 40 percent.

 

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

Link to comment
Share on other sites

45 minutes ago, Alex said:

Sorry, but avian flu is not the reason. And collusion is nothing new among the major egg producers.

Shall we assume then that this applies to Canada, New Zealand, UK..........?

  • Thanks 1

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Shall we assume then that this applies to Canada, New Zealand, UK..........?

Sometimes I think it's just a case of monkey see, monkey do. We have no cases of avian flu in Costa Rica but egg prices here are rising exponentially.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Alex said:

Sorry, but avian flu is not the reason. And collusion is nothing new among the major egg producers.

 

And this surprises anyone...why?

 

All one has to do is look at the profits of a cartel like Cal-Maine.

  • Like 1

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, weinoo said:

 

And this surprises anyone...why?

 

All one has to do is look at the profits of a cartel like Cal-Maine.

I think avian flu and collusion are both simplistic answers to a complex phenomenon.

  • Like 2

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

Link to comment
Share on other sites

times do change ..

 

not that many years ago 

 

back then ,   there was a significant bump in E.P,'s

 

bird flu.    it lasted as long as it lasted 

 

and egg prices came down to what they were before.

 

no idea who long that was 

 

or how long egg prices ( under current economics ) have been up

 

now.

 

however , corporations , both large and small

 

very much have their eye on ' opportunities '  

 

when they present themselves.

 

Im wondering if ( all factors factored ) 

 

volume is down enough to affect ' egg profit '

 

and Im sure volume is not linear plotted for price 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

the nuance for me

 

apologies if mentioned before 

 

Market Basket brand eggs were always cheaper

 

that TJ's ' bottom shelf - White Large 

 

this event out a bit w the cage free law ,  possibly Tj's only sod cage free ?

 

however  3.45 Tj's  are 3.99  Market Basket

 

Market Basket is not the type of store to tack on  50 cents

 

sold for profit . they would try to find the 3.45 supplier

 

MB's orders might be much higher than Tj's

 

and the supplier knowing this , smiles and says take it or leave it.

 

this comes from each emporiums supply-er

Edited by rotuts (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Price Fixing has been around for a long time - why the FTC tries but alot is "secret" verbal. Main carpet install companies did it for some time in L.A.  Took turns letting one go low on major projects so as not to be obvious.  The mills may have kniown but they are sole source so...  And then their are the specifiers the mills have inpocket...https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/dealings-competitors/price-fixing So is the egg thng really shocking?

 

I asked my favorite cashier who has farm animals if she has hens. She said when this cold her hens take a break. So many factors. 

 

When California went cage free only and there was  a significant price hike it seemed consumers voted with their wallets and the big blip settled down. May happen again.

Edited by heidih (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was pleasantly surprised when I went to the store today to buy eggs. Contrary to all the news about egg prices rising, they had actually gone down a little. I paid the equivalent of $3.20 a dozen.

This is how we buy our eggs in Costa Rica

20230126_155405.thumb.jpg.fd6d9dbde3a14ef62435bb0aec0c7059.jpg

They are technically priced by the kilo but sell by 15 or 30 at a fixed price.

20230126_155521.thumb.jpg.d9e3d3366251d087c571504664274d6c.jpg

If you buy them in a butcher shop or at the Farmers Market, most of the time they weigh them.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...