Rising egg prices linked to bird flu's impact on supply chain

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Yahoo! News/The Hill

Sat, 28 September 2024 at 4:16 pm


The rising price of eggs in the last year has been linked to bird’s flu impact on the supply chain. Eggs’ price tag has gone up by 28.1 percent in the last 12 months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The average price for a dozen large eggs was $3.20, according to the bureau’s statistics.

The spikes in prices occurred, in part, because of the high demand for the product, but also due to the bird flu outbreak at chicken farms in Colorado in July. “Bird flu is the number one reason for higher prices, absolutely,” Phil Lempert, a grocery industry analyst, told CNN.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), also known as bird flu, has affected over 100 million in 48 states since January 2022, the data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed.

“Think about how they are housed: small spaces with lots of chickens,” Lempert said. “When one chicken gets bird flu, they’ve got to cull the entire flock. That’s the problem.” The sickness of the birds has affected the total egg output, and lower production of eggs, in part, leads to an increase in prices.

Read more: https://au.news.yahoo.com/rising-egg-prices-linked-bird-201659673.html

[yaesu]

1. My farmer neighbor keeps me supplied with farm fresh eggs for free. nt

[LetsGetSmartAboutIt]

2. Inflation in their profits

I wish I had the link but one of the 5 major egg producers had a shareholder meeting during covid and complaints about inflation were at their highest.

During the presentation they said they were not effected at all by bird flu and that for some unknown reason their quarterly profits were up 70% from the same quarter in the previous year.

So the inflation was just their profits, why not take advantage of the massive perceived inflation to raise prices.

This is the ultimate profit center for business, you mean we can just increase our prices, let the media blame it on inflation and or avian flu, and we just get more money for the same products without an increase in our costs ?

Sign us up.

And this could be a long term trend this "inflation" is terrible for our economy, we feel so bad that our customers are being burdened by this Bidenomics thing yet again. It's a tragedy.

Call me on my second yacht I was able to purchase if it happens again. Such a shame.

[Blue Full Moon]

3. Don't forget

The the CEO of Krogers and other store CEOs are on record admitting the price gouging. The bird flu has happened before COVID and the price didn't go up.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. I remember the story you are talking about and found one link related to this

Egg prices rose 60% in 2022. One farm group claims it’s a ‘collusive scheme’ by suppliers

(snip)

But Farm Action, a farmer-led advocacy group, claims the “real culprit” is a “collusive scheme” among major egg producers to fix and gouge prices, the organization said in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission.

Doing so has helped producers “extract egregious profits reaching as high as 40%,” according to the letter, issued Thursday, which asks FTC Chair Lina Khan to investigate for potential profiteering and “foul play.”

An FTC spokesman declined to comment due to a general agency policy regarding letters, petitions or complaints received from third parties.

(snip)

Link to Farm group's page about this - - https://farmaction.us/2023/01/19/farm-action-calls-for-ftc-to-investigate-record-high-egg-prices/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Link to letter mentioned in the above (PDF) - https://farmaction.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Farm-Action-Letter-to-FTC-Chair-Lina-Khan.pdf

[cstanleytech]

4. Mmm weren't a number of egg sellers caught price fixing a bit ago?

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Yes - from a case filed a dozen years ago

Egg suppliers ordered to pay $17.7 million by federal jury for price gouging in 2000s

The "fixing" period was for 2004 - 2008.

Now with bird flu, they can "hide it" better.

[DemonGoddess]

5. There were thousands of

birds killed off to prevent the spread of bird flu. In many states. So, price increases are not a surprise.

[Snoopy 7]

6. Here we go again

GREED is the problem, it doesn't matter what the corps say. The price is raised immediately when ever there is a 'problem'. Not when there is a need (aka: supply and demand) because, for all they know there may be a drop in request therefore no demand. Nope it is just a greedy instant reaction RAISE THE PRICES WHILE WE HAVE AN EXCUSE. Oil companies do it all the time, there was a problem at ?, therefore we must raise our prices even though there is still plenty of oil and fuel in stock. Then everything is restored and prices slowly start decreasing, even though they were raised in a matter of hours, but the cost rarely goes down to the original cost. Greed reacts before purchasing people have time to think. And I know this started about eggs so:
https://www.vox.com/money/24144715/egg-price-inflation-bird-flu-corporate-greed

[Conjuay]

9. Why has the price of chicken itself not skyrocketed?

I'm sure different varieties are used for egg output than meat, but you would think disease would be be equally felt in both enterprises.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. I've seen the (fryer) chicken prices fluctuate during these outbreaks too

I think a lot of it is also geographic/regional, so not all areas will see those rises due to where the culling of either egg-laying and/or fryer chickens is happening, and who they are distributing to.

A Cruel Way to Control Bird Flu? Poultry Giants Cull and Cash In.


By Andrew Jacobs
Published April 2, 2024 Updated April 4, 2024


The highly lethal form of avian influenza circulating the globe since 2021 has killed tens of millions of birds, forced poultry farmers in the United States to slaughter entire flocks and prompted a brief but alarming spike in the price of eggs. Most recently, it has infected dairy cows in several states and at least one person in Texas who had close contact with the animals, officials said this week.

The outbreak, it turns out, is proving to be especially costly for American taxpayers. Last year, the Department of Agriculture paid poultry producers more than half a billion dollars for the turkeys, chickens and egg-laying hens they were forced to kill after the flu strain, H5N1, was detected on their farms.

Officials say the compensation program is aimed at encouraging farms to report outbreaks quickly. That’s because the government pays for birds killed through culling, not those that die from the disease. Early reporting, the agency says, helps to limit the virus’s spread to nearby farms.

Among the biggest recipients of the agency’s bird flu indemnification funds from 2022 to this year were Jennie-O Turkey Store, which received more than $88 million, and Tyson Foods, which was paid nearly $30 million. Despite their losses, the two companies reported billions of dollars in profits last year. Overall, a vast majority of the government payments went to the country’s largest food companies — not entirely surprising given corporate America’s dominance of meat and egg production.

(snip)

The government does reimburse them for the cull and the biggest corporate giants like Perdue get top reimbursement based on size.

[republianmushroom]

11. Damn, jd, could this be part of the problem ?

Or is it just your ignorance that is the problem ?

[maxsolomon]

13. I thought Biden set egg prices

and was just trying to stick it to real 'Mericans.

[Deminpenn]

14. Egg prices have been on a roller coaster

They've been under $2, over $3.50 a DZ and everything in between around western PA.