After ruling flat at Rs 2.15 a piece for almost a week, eggs are again becoming expensive as demand increases.

The National Egg Coordination Committee's Namakkal zone has decided to increase the prices of eggs by five paise to Rs 2.20. “Prices will move up by 5-10 paise in the coming days,” according to Mr P. Selvaraj, Chairman of NECC's Namakkal zone. After hitting a record Rs 3.02 last month, egg prices dropped around 40 per cent to reach Rs 2.15.

“Accumulation of stock, buyer resistance and seasonal uncertainties led to a sudden fall in the egg prices. As a result, margins of small poultry farmers were affected a bit,” Mr Selvaraj said. The Namakkal region produces three crore eggs a day.

Rising feed

NECC has raised the prices of layer birds to Rs 25/kg (Rs 23) while the Palladam-based Broiler Coordination Committee has increased the prices of cull birds to Rs 60/kg (Rs 54). “Prices are likely to go up during end-March when demand for animal protein usually is on the rise during summer and it outpaces supply in a lean season. Industry sources attribute the rise in prices to escalating feed prices. “A year ago, feed cost was Rs 400/bag and now it has increased to Rs 1,100. To cope up with this huge jump, we are forced to pass on part of the price rise to consumers,” said a poultry owner.

On the export front, with the doors of West Asia still closed to Indian poultry products, trade is now focusing more on the neighbouring Sri Lanka as the country has decided to import eggs from India until the shortage is met there and domestic prices stabilise. Earlier, India used to export 100 containers (of 4.75 lakh eggs each) every month to West Asia and 50 containers to Africa. But now these have dropped to negligible quantities. India, since mid-December, has exported around 18 lakh eggs to Sri Lanka.

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