The price of eggs

[liuzhou]

No shortage here, either.  No price hikes, either.

 

Also, in stores and markets, eggs are nearly always weighed to determine cost. I buy super-fresh sea duck eggs online and they are,  sold by number. All online sales are by number, although they also often list the approximate weight. My duck eggs come overnight from a nearby city and are a lot more expensive than 'regular' eggs, but in my mind worth it.

 

Average-sized regular eggs go for the equivalent of $2.00 USD / dozen. Larger or free  range might go for nearer $3.00. My duck eggs are $4.00.

 

Ad for free range eggs

 

Not that they are sold by the dozen. We're decimal! Or sell by the eight - that being China's luckiest number.

 

Sea duck eggs

Edited January 27 by liuzhou (log)

[eugenep]

New article in the Economist came out that suggests that the high price of eggs in the past months could have been due to illegal price fixing. 

 

Something like 40% of the egg market is dominated by just three suppliers and avian flu, cost of feed, high demand etc. do not justify the high prices. 

 

Also, the same high demand factors exist in the meat industry and other industries but they do not see similarly high prices. 

 

So it looks like illegal price fixing suggested by the Economist. 

 

Article here The price of eggs in America cannot be explained by inflation alone | The Economist 

 

The FTC got involved and it looks like price and trending down again but wait and see. 

[AlaMoi]

we have several local 'farm stores' i.e. the winter version of a 'farm stand' - that sell their own eggs.

they do not sort/grade/inspect - these are eggs laid yesterday . . . leaving the issue that in a dozen one gets a mix of small to jumbo.

realistically this is not a problem for the well rounded cook . . . breakfast eggs - over easy to scrambled to pan omelet . . . the size is not much of an issue.

for small qty batches of baked stuff, the well rounded cook needs to be a bit more careful in selecting something close to 'large' - which is what most recipes are based on.

 

for the most part their prices have been stable - their most sensitive cost is the feed.  since they typically buy large quantities of feed, the doubled cost of feed does not factor into their selling price until they have to by more . . .

[eugenep]

2 hours ago, AlaMoi said:

 

 

for the most part their prices have been stable - their most sensitive cost is the feed.  since they typically buy large quantities of feed, the doubled cost of feed does not factor into their selling price until they have to by more . . .

 

 

What is weird about US egg prices is that it's very high when other parts of the world it's stable. 

 

I mean..oil, coffee, and other commodities are interconnected in some global supply chain so what goes on in one part of the world has an effect on prices globally. 

 

It's like that for coffee  and oil and I would expect the same for eggs and other commodities.  

 

But the high price of eggs seem more localized to the US. That's why I agree with that article in the Economist and I think there is price fixing and collusion involved. 

 

A lot of us got burned and I hope the FTC and our political and business elite does something the help the common person in the US. 

[AlaMoi]

did you account for the avian flu issue?

in the USA, 5-10 million chickens / poultry that lay eggs have died, or been killed, to prevent further spread of the disease(s).

[heidih]

In US eggs would be continent based - not global. I've seen the price come down a bit. But they were one of those standards we expect to be super cheap here. I use maybe 2 a day and am fine with the price/value ratio. Maybe I value them more when they are not incredibly cheap. I don't spend much at all on food luxury items so even now I pay for the hard shelled brown cage free ones because they make me happy aesthetically. If I could get to Farmers market I''d happily pay for local. The conglomerates and price fixing I've noted before as everywhere/ most industries - just done in the back room.  Hard for regulators to prove difference between copy cat priciong and intentional group acts.

[eugenep]

the Economist article did account for avian flu and the research and the FTC seem to both agree that that factor was not adequate to account for the price increasing as much as it did. 

 

I think the inflation/pandemic gave sellers the excuse to fix prices and to try to get away with it.