November 20, 2007

Israel's egg prices to escalate by 5 percent

Israel's poultry breeders announced that they will raise the price of chicken eggs by 5 percent soon.

The Poultry Breeders Union of Israel and an organization of egg marketers petitioned the Agriculture Ministry and Finance Ministry to immediately add about 3 agorot per egg.

However, the specific price depends on the egg sizes; small, medium or large. Sector sources foresee that the request will be approved, like the previous ones.

The start of the year saw an increase of 10 percent on egg prices. This next increase totals a 15-percent rise.

Yakov Cohen, secretary general of the Poultry Breeders Union, explained that the farmers struggled of soaring costs of fowl feed precursors.

Cohen said that poultry farmers have suffered about US$3.5 million in losses because the government has delayed in updating egg prices.

Price of animal feed has jumped this year, not only the seeds used to make bird food, but also grains. The result was a 10-percent increase in the price of dairy products and a leap of more than 30 percent in the price of bread since the start of 2007. The prices of fresh meat, chicken and turkey have also risen sharply.