Egg production from March to May will decrease by 17% compared to the previous year, and prices will jump by up to 68%.

Input 2021.03.14 08:54 | Revision 2021.03.14 09:01

Reduce laying hens with highly pathogenic AI quarantine measures
It seems to be stable only in the second half

It is predicted that egg production in March-May will decline by 17% from last year, and as a result, egg production prices could rise by up to 68% from last year. Expensive egg prices are expected to settle only around June-September, when the number of laying hens returns to normal levels.

With the recent season change, the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has slowed somewhat, but as a large number of laying hens are killed by AI quarantine measures, the supply has declined, and the consumer price of a single egg (30 special eggs) remains at a high level of 7600 won.

According to the Agricultural Observation Headquarters of the Korea Rural Economic Research Institute on the 14th, the average number of breeding hens from March to May is 6,611 million, which is expected to decrease by 8.7% from last year and 6.4% from normal. Of these, the number of breeding horses over 6 months of age when they begin to lay eggs in earnest was estimated to be 45.8 million, down 14.1% from last year and 13.3% from normal.

As of the 24th of last month, a total of 15.8 million hens were killed for HPAI quarantine measures, which is 21.8% of the total number of hens raised at the time.

As the number of laying counts decreases, the average daily egg production from March to May is expected to decline by 17.1% from last year and 11.7% from normal to 37.6 million.

Accordingly, the production price of eggs from March to May was predicted to be 1600-1800 won per 10 special eggs. Compared to KRW 1158 in March last year, KRW 1136 in April, and KRW 1069 in May, it is 38-68% higher. Compared to normal March-May, it was found to be 52-90% more expensive.

As of the 12th, the consumer price of a single egg was 7633 won. Compared to the increase of 7821 won on the 15th of last month, it fell 24.0%, but it is still 44.7% higher than last year and 49.8% higher than normal. It was found that four large supermarkets are selling a plate of eggs from 6950 won to 7980 won before the coupon discount is applied. The average price of 15 traditional markets was 7669 won.