Sunday ho ya Monday Roz Khao Ande — remember the popular jingle from the National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) which persuaded you to eat more eggs, no matter what day of the week it is? But, it looks like the steadily increasing price of the eggs over the last couple of months is playing spoilsport. City Express finds out the factors which are leading to the constant rise in prices of the eggs. The only consolation is that the prices have lowered a bit owing to the festivals falling this month.
Bangalore consumes 40 to 45 lakh eggs per day, but produces only 16-18 lakh. We get the rest of the supply from Namakkal in Tamil Nadu, the country’s eggland and also from Davangere and Hospet in Karnataka.
Consumption of eggs usually goes up in the winter because of Christmas where the demand for bakery products also shoot up. But, the prices which shot up in November/December last year hasn’t really come down in the last few months.
A provision store owner in Magadi Road said, “There are no rains and crop loss has led to the increase in prices of food grains and feed for the poultry industry.”
Lack of rain, which resulted in vegetable shortage had spurred the demand for eggs as it was seen as the only balanced diet at a lower price. But spiralling input costs and rise in cost of production apart from the ever-increasing demand has contributed to the rising price of eggs.
A poultry unit owner said, “The demand has remained constant ever since the Christmas season last year. The reopening of schools (eggs consumed in schools as part of the mid-day meal schemes) during May end and June has brought us a sigh of relief.”
But not all is well. With the real estate boom which has led to construction activities taking place in the land available in the outskirts, not many people prefer to have poultry farms and it is not practical to get the supply of eggs from rural areas as it adds to the cost. BR Sainath, Zonal Chairman (Bangalore) of NECC, said, “The cost of poultry feed, soya cakes, bajra, raagi and the major component being maize has shot from `950 to `1,450 per quintal. With scanty or no rainfall, no one knows the position of the coming crop and hence the export houses are holding back and not releasing the stock. Importing eggs is not really an option because of the strict import policy.” The farmer is not even making a profit because of the limited profit margins. Sainath adds, “If you are paying `3.50 today, the farmer gets only `2.70 with the retailer making 25-30ps/egg and the remaining is shared among the wholesalers and semi-wholesalers.”
The increase in demand has also led to culling of birds, the process of removing breeding animals from a group based on specific criteria, before the stipulated period because the farmers can’t afford to wait for long. Instead of waiting until 72 weeks wherein each bird can produce 320 to 340 eggs, the birds are culled by 55 to 60 weeks wherein a bird can produce only 270 eggs.
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