Shoppers could also be in for a shock once they take a look at the price of eggs the subsequent time they go to the shop, an area economist says.
Egg costs have fallen drastically because the vacation season regardless of many information shops reporting the opposite. The common value of a carton of a dozen white eggs in New York final week dropped to $3.13 in comparison with the staggering $5.42 on Dec. 23, in response to the newest weekly figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Jonathan Haughton, chairman of Suffolk University’s economics division, instructed the Herald on Tuesday he’s seeing a discount right here, too. He purchased a carton of brown eggs for roughly $3.70 final weekend at an area Whole Foods, down from the greater than $4 he spent earlier this month.
“Will it stay down? That’s a different question,” Haughton mentioned. “It still is a bit of an issue, but my sense is the worst is over.”
The nationwide common retail value of a dozen eggs hit $4.25 in December, up from $1.79 a yr earlier, figures present.
U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) despatched a letter final week asking for the Federal Trade Commission to research whether or not egg costs have been improperly manipulated by producers.
A farmer-led advocacy group known as Farm Action made an analogous request earlier this month arguing that there “appears to be a collusive scheme among industry leaders to turn inflationary conditions and an avian flu outbreak into an opportunity to extract egregious profits.”
The spike in egg costs has been attributed to the tens of millions of chickens that had been slaughtered to restrict the unfold of chicken flu and farmers having to compensate for inflation driving up their prices.
Roughly 43 million egg-laying chickens have been slaughtered over the previous yr to assist management chicken flu. More than 49 million birds in 46 states had died both on account of virus an infection or as a result of publicity to contaminated birds, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in November.
The largest U.S. producer of eggs, Cal-Maine Foods, was singled out by each Reed and the Farm Action group as a result of it reported final month that its quarterly gross sales had jumped 110% to $801.7 million on the report egg costs, serving to it generate a $198.6 million revenue. up from simply $1.1 million a yr earlier.
As the unfold of chicken flu has dissipated, Haughton mentioned he believes egg costs will proceed to drop, however some uncertainty stays. He cited grain as an enormous supply within the manufacturing and pricing of eggs, including that grain prices typically fluctuate because of the warfare in Ukraine.
“The big unknown is whether the flu will come back,” Haughton mentioned. “It tends to go in waves. It only has to hit a producer that has a million chickens and a big facility, and that’s another million of them destroyed and offline.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report
Source: www.bostonherald.com”