July 3, 2012

India's egg prices rise to new record

India's egg prices have rose to a new record of INR3.33 (US$0.06), and is expected to go up further in the next few days, though marginally, according to the Chairman of NECC, Namakkal Zone, Mr P. Selvaraj.

The rise in price is attributed to the increase in demand following the onset of Southwest monsoon.

Sources in the poultry industry expect even chicken prices to rise further in coming days. "Of our average production of 2.75 crore eggs (in Namakkal), we used to send 30 lakh eggs to Kerala. Now, it has almost doubled, owing to a ban on fishing in that State," said a poultry-unit owner in Namakkal.

Since last week, the National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC), Namakkal zone, has hiked the price by 11 paise (US$0.002) from INR3.22 (US$0.06).

From May 26 to June 28, the wholesale price of egg has been raised 15 times from to INR3.33 (US$0.06), an overall increase of 19%.

A host of factors, such as rise in consumption, spiralling input costs, pricey vegetables, ban on fishing in the neighbouring Kerala and Karnataka, have catapulted egg prices.

Soaring cost of soymeal - a key ingredient in poultry feed is also one of the reasons. Soy at Indore ruled up to INR33,600 (US$601.61) against INR17,400 (US$311.55) during the corresponding date a year ago. Feed costs account for two-thirds of production cost at a poultry unit.

On the export front, the industry is pinning hopes on neighbouring Bangladesh that has opened its gates to imports to meet Ramadan demand. Exports hit a 10-year low of 240.88 lakh (24,088,000) eggs in May this year against 330.62 lakh (33,062,000) eggs in May 2011. However, prices of layer birds have been cut to INR48 (US$0.86) per kilogramme, while the Broiler Coordination Committee has slashed chicken prices to INR60 (US$1.07) per kilogramme from last week's record of INR76 (US$1.36).

Industry sources said that the price of layer birds had come down as the production of broiler chicken - that dropped in the summer - had started picking up with the onset of the monsoon. This has led to drop in the prices as layer bird prices are based on the demand and price of broiler chicken.