Prices of farm chicken eggs have become volatile again. Within three days, the retail price has risen by Tk 30 a dozen to Tk 150.

Egg prices were volatile once before, in the middle of last month, when a dozen went above Tk 160. Eggs had never risen so much or reached such a price before, and the product is now heading down the same road again.

Some traders say continuous rain has created a supply shortage. Others say the main causes are higher international prices of poultry feed ingredients, higher fuel prices and a stronger dollar. When egg prices rose last month for these reasons, they came down under pressure from the administration, but because the problems were not solved, prices are rising again.

Some say it is still not clear what is happening with eggs and that middlemen have started playing with eggs again. Many admit, however, that prices should not have risen as much as they have.

In Dhaka's retail markets at Rampura, Malibagh and Shantinagar and neighbourhood shops in those areas, eggs were selling at Tk 50 for four, or Tk 150 a dozen. In some markets they were seen selling for Tk 5 to Tk 10 less a dozen, but those were few.

Yasin Hossain, an egg seller at Rampura bazar, said eggs jumped suddenly from Wednesday night. Prices had also risen over the two days before that, but only by Tk 5-7. On Thursday morning the wholesale price reached Tk 140.

He said that on Tuesday he bought 100 eggs for Tk 1,050, which now cost Tk 1,170. That puts each egg at Tk 11.70, and with other costs it now sells at Tk 12.50. He said supply has been low because of several days of continuous rain, and that is why prices have risen.

Zafar Uddin, owner of Bismillah Store in Malibagh, said they buy eggs from one fixed wholesaler, who delivers every day and has raised the price daily for the past few days. On Thursday morning he was told to sell at Tk 50 for four. By that reckoning, the price of each egg has gone up by almost Tk 3 in three days, so eggs that sold at Tk 120 a dozen last week must now sell at Tk 150.

Nazim Uddin, a wholesale egg trader at the Tejgaon market, said eggs suddenly became volatile again this week because supply from village depots is low.

Taher Ahmed Siddiqui, president of the egg producers' association, told Jagonews that egg prices have not risen at farms and production has not fallen. "But we have heard eggs are selling at Tk 135 a dozen in the wholesale market, up from Tk 120 two days ago."

He said that although they produce the eggs, they cannot set the price and are not getting even one taka more. Wholesalers and big companies are forming a syndicate, he alleged. They produce 5 lakh eggs a day, and if they can raise the price by Tk 2 they make Tk 10 lakh a day. He alleged that they are the ones who raised prices.

A representative of the Tejgaon Multipurpose Cooperative Society, the organisation of Dhaka's egg wholesalers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said representatives of corporate companies set the price every morning, and wholesale prices are set accordingly. Those who destabilised egg prices last month are doing it again now. At the time, they gave the names of those companies to various government quarters, but no action has been taken yet.

Several other traders and producers said egg prices had been rising for several months because of higher poultry feed prices, and higher fuel prices had raised transport costs and pushed egg prices up somewhat. That destabilised the market last month, but a class of dishonest traders took advantage of these factors then and are active again. The way egg prices are rising, they said, should not be happening.

They also said many small hatcheries closed after suffering losses during a long period of low egg prices. With hatcheries closed, chicken production fell, and corporate companies are taking over that space. They can easily raise egg prices, and they are behind this volatility.

When egg prices rose abnormally last month, ordinary farmers alleged at a press conference that a syndicate in the poultry sector had looted Tk 520 crore from consumers and small farmers by raising the prices of eggs, broilers and layer chickens, and that 10-12 corporate local and foreign poultry companies were involved.

Later, raids by the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection found evidence of a syndicate in egg prices through corporate firms. The raids found that a Kazi Farms sales centre had raised egg prices by Tk 3 overnight. The directorate then met the companies and gave a report to the commerce ministry, but no effective action has been taken since.

Some farmers also alleged that they were forced to cut egg prices at that time because of pressure from the administration and falling demand. They said the poultry sector is now facing ruin and they are in fact losing money on eggs, so egg prices need some adjustment. Trying to force egg prices down, they said, is why the market keeps becoming unstable.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.