▲ A citizen who chooses eggs at a mart in Seoul. (yunhap news)
Egg prices will continue to rise until May, and compared to last year, the price is expected to rise to a maximum of 68%.
Recently, the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) has slowed, but as the supply declined, the consumer price of a single egg (30 special eggs) as of this month was 7633 won. This is 44.7% higher than last year and 49.8% higher than normal.
According to the Agricultural Observation Headquarters of the Korea Rural Economic Research Institute on the 14th, this trend is expected to continue until May and then recover to normal level from June.
The average number of breeding hens from March to May is 6,611 million, which is expected to decrease 8.7% from last year and 6.4% from normal.
The number of animals raised over 6 months of age, which is important for egg production, was estimated to be 45.8 million, 14.1% less than last year and 13.3% less than normal.
As the number of breeding hens decreases, the average daily egg production from March to May is expected to decrease by 17.1% from last year and by 11.7% from normal to 37.6 million.
During the same period, the predicted production price of 10 special events was 1600-1800 won. Compared to last year, March (1,158 won in March 2020) is 38.2-55.4%, April (1136 won) is 40.9-58.5%, and May (1069 won) is 49.7-68.4% higher.
However, the Agricultural Observation Headquarters predicted that egg prices will gradually stabilize as the number of laying hens raised from June will recover to normal levels.