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Consumers continue to feel threatened by rising egg prices. Avian influenza outbreaks continue to affect laying hens, and other items related to laying are also affected by inflation.
Some egg prices are down, but that’s because of wholesale purchases in egg sales.
The average selling price for a dozen Grade A mass market eggs was just over $1.00. The report is released Friday by the USDA. Retail prices change more slowly than wholesale prices, writes Dr. Scott Brown, an associate professor in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources.
“If the retail price of eggs falls, egg consumers will benefit, but if the price of eggs rises, egg producers will gain additional income,” Brown wrote.
The USDA reported an average price of $3.99 per dozen eggs this week, up from last week’s retail price of $2.92. A year ago, the average price for a dozen large Grade A eggs was $1.21.
According to a Jan. 23 wholesale market report, most eggs are sold in the $3.45 to $3.48 range in the South Central region, which includes Missouri. This is down from early in the year when wholesale prices were about $5.40 per dozen of his. Wholesale prices rose steadily throughout 2022, with the biggest gains from November through the end of the year, from just under $3 to over $5 per dozen.
Axios reports that Missouri has yet to see the type of price in other regions. Based on his Instacart sales data analyzed by Axios, Missouri had the lowest average prices and Hawaii the highest.
Dustin Stanton, chairman of the Columbia Farmers Market Board and president of Stanton Brothers Eggs, has worked hard to keep prices down, but there are other factors that influence market prices.
“We are (currently) facing inflation in feed, utility and labor costs, which is also affecting the costs of many producers,” he wrote in a message to the Tribune. …Inflation is the biggest problem and it is not going away anytime soon.”
Stanton sells his eggs at the Columbia Farmers Market and local retailers such as Schnucks. Other farmers sell eggs at his market booth, but they aren’t a staple product like Stanton’s.
Stanton has no cases of bird flu affecting 12 Missouri counties.
The affected areas are mainly in counties close to the border states. They seem to be concentrated in a group of counties in southwestern Missouri (Lawrence, Jasper, Dade, Webster). Both poultry and turkey commercial meat operations were affected in these counties last year. There was also one case in Webster County of a backyard non-poultry bird. In the majority of cases within the state, affected birds were euthanized.
The closest counties in central and northeastern Missouri that were affected were Osage and Lalls counties, respectively. Commercial turkey operations at Osage affected him in December, while at Lall’s he was backyard non-poultry in March. Affected individuals were euthanized in both cases. The most recent impact was the release of a non-poultry bird into a backyard in Johnson County on January 4th. Bird was euthanized.
Grocery bills will continue to be high for consumers because there aren’t many good substitutes for eggs, especially when used in other applications, Brown wrote.
“These high egg prices have increased the cost of producing products that use eggs as a raw material,” he wrote.
Charles Dunlap covers Tribune local government, community stories, and other popular subjects.To contact him, cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Subscribe to support important local journalism.
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