Poultry farmers expect egg prices to continue to rise in Germany. According to the producers’ estimates, the cheaper barn eggs in particular are likely to become more expensive before Christmas. “It will most likely be scarce for cheap eggs,” said the President of the Central Association of the German Poultry Industry, Friedrich-Otto Ripke.
In the case of the more expensive eggs from organic farming or from free-range farming, he does not currently expect the goods to become scarcer. Recently, customers have been very price-sensitive due to high inflation and have tended to buy cheaper goods.
Several factors are currently making egg prices more expensive: The ongoing avian influenza is causing a lower number of laying hens in Europe. According to the industry, many farms have reduced their livestock because of the high feed costs. After all, the phasing out of chick killing caused prices for pullets to rise sharply, said Ripke: “The pullet price has doubled.”
Because of the avian influenza, countries like the Netherlands could no longer supply enough barn eggs. According to Ripke, the degree of self-sufficiency in shell eggs in Germany is just over 70 percent. The rest is imported and 70 percent comes from the Netherlands.
Huge demand for eggs worldwide
The lower number of laying hens is currently meeting a strong global demand for eggs, said the chairman of the Federal Egg Association, Henner Schönecke: “It is the case that the Americans in Europe are currently buying eggs because they do not have enough themselves.” Every producer thinks about where to sell his eggs. This could mean that certain eggs are missing from the range in food retail. Situations like the one in Great Britain, where discounters sometimes limit purchases to one or two packs per customer, are not to be expected in Germany.
Because the chicks were not killed, egg prices had already risen by two cents per egg last year. This year there will be another increase of two cents per egg due to the increased feed costs. “The cheapest eggs today are 1.99 euros per ten pieces,” said Schönecke. Because of the avian influenza and the associated stall requirement for laying hens in the affected regions, it is to be expected that free-range eggs will also become scarcer in the new year.
