Egg prices drop to ₹4.80 in Namakkal and ₹6 in retail market

Egg prices drop to ₹4.80 in Namakkal due to reduced exports and early summer demand, impacting poultry owners.

Driven by a slump in foreign exports and demand from the Northern States due to an early summer, the price of a single egg has reduced to ₹4.80 in Namakkal district. However, the retail market in Salem and Namakkal districts continues to sell eggs at ₹6.

More than six crore eggs are produced across the district’s 1,100 poultry farms every day for shipping to States such as Kerala, besides being exported to foreign countries such as Muscat, Qatar and the UAE.. In December of last year, the price of a single egg in Namakkal rose to ₹5.75 due to an increase in egg consumption. Poultry owners anticipated that the price would continue to rise and reach ₹6 per egg. However, by the end of the winter season, egg consumption began to decrease, and the price of eggs started to drop in the fourth week of January. Currently, one egg is being sold for ₹4.80 in Namakkal, a decrease from the previous price.

Tamil Nadu Egg Poultry Farmers Marketing Society chairman Vangli Subramaniam said that around 15 crore eggs are exported each month. However, with the onset of the Ramzan month, orders from foreign countries have reduced. As a result, currently, only 10 to 12 crore eggs are exported per month. Furthermore, since summer has started early this year in the second week of February, the demand for eggs has reduced, leading to a significant drop in egg prices. Despite this, the retail market still sells eggs at ₹6 per egg, according to Mr. Subramaniam.

Urging the government to fix the price of eggs, Mr. Subramaniam said that it costs ₹5 to ₹5.10 to produce an egg, but now poultry owners are sustaining a 30-paise loss per egg. The government should fix a price after taking into account production costs, and the price should not go below that. Mr. Subramaniam expressed hope that prices of eggs would increase in the coming months after Ramzan.