After almost 4 months since the appearance of the first bird flu epidemic in the country, the virus directly affects the price of one of the products from the poultry sector, table eggs; but also in the sellers of this product who assure that their sales have dropped by up to 50% in the last week due to the price increase.

According to data from the Union of Egg Producers (Uniproh) until March 15, as a reference price, a large bucket for eggs of 30 pieces on the farm is from 3.90 to 4.00 dollars. Meanwhile, the price of eggs at the end of the chain, that is, in markets and in stores, has seen an increase of between 21% and 28% since the beginning of March, according to sellers of the product in Guayaquil.

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During a visit by the team from Diario EL UNIVERSO, it was found that in these places buckets of 30 eggs, which were sold for $3.50 until the beginning of March, have risen in price to $4.25, depending on the size of the eggs, since they are the smallest bucket that used to be sold. used to sell for $2.75 now costs $3.50.

For example, in the central market of Guayaquil, Franklin Ruche, who has been selling eggs for more than 15 years. confirmed that the price increase is the result of bird flu, at least that’s what his supplier, who brings eggs from the city of Ambato, in the province of Tungurahua, told him, in order to justify the price increase.

“This has been going on for about 15 days now and it has affected sales, people are not wearing, more or less 50% has fallen,” said Ruche.

Another local shopkeeper also complained about the increase in prices, stating that her sales had also fallen. “People complain about the price, but they have to buy it because that’s the price, we only make $0.15,” he said.

In neighboring stores, the situation is similar, a bucket is sold for up to $4.50 and a unit for up to $0.20, while before a bucket was sold for between $3 and $3.50 and a unit for between $0.10 and $0.15, depending about the size of the product.

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Juan Francisco Jaramillo, spokesperson for the National Corporation of Poultry Breeders of Ecuador (Conave), explained that there are several factors that generate the increase in the price of eggs; Although he confirmed that the main one is that there is a lower population of egg-laying birds due to bird flu, however, he clarified that this problem only had an impact in March in an industry that already had low production from last year. January and February.

However, Jaramillo cited other factors that also affect production such as: cyclical behavior of the market price, intermediation, climatic factors and poor road conditions.

“Officially, the number of birds affected by bird flu is 1,200,000 laying birds, that is, birds that produce edible eggs. This number of birds represents 8% of the national production”, explained Jaramillo, who clarified that the biological and production cycle of birds, as well as the protocols for the repopulation of farms affected by avian influenza, do not allow to solve the decline in bird production. birds.immediate way.

“We hope that production and supply will gradually normalize in the coming weeks,” said Conave’s spokesman, who reiterated that the drop in egg production in the first two months of this year was due to the economic impact of the pandemic caused by COVID. 19 and the strikes that the country faced, which caused a decrease in the import of genetic material; not bird flu.

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Egg production decreased by 10.28% in January and 8.63% in February compared to the same period in 2022.

Uniproh, on the other hand, points to a greater impact, as they assure that out of 1,200,000 slaughtered birds, there are 1,500,000 birds that the producers did not adopt due to fear of infection and another 1,300,000 birds that were in production and were sold due to fear of infection.

“There are about 4,000,000 birds here that are not in production, which affects a drop in production of approx. 25 to 30 percent, which is an alarming situation because it will not be possible to supply the country with this product, which leads to an increase in prices, because the price of table eggs is determined by the market on the basis of supply and demand”, explained the Syndicate this Wednesday, March 15, in a press release.

Regarding the stabilization of egg production and supply, Uniproh explained that the production process is long-term, therefore it is considered that it will stabilize at the same levels as in October 2022, when 14,000,000 eggs were produced per day, in the 7th or 8th months.

Prices have been maintained in supermarkets

Meanwhile, this newspaper also discovered that the price of eggs is maintained in different supermarket chains in Guayaquil. A bucket of 12 large eggs costs $2.40, a bucket of medium eggs costs $2.27, while a bucket of 30 large eggs sells for $5.57, and a bucket of medium eggs costs $5.27.

Jaramillo assured that this is due to the fact that supermarkets have signed contracts with suppliers with a stable price throughout the year. In addition, he indicated that large companies, which are the main suppliers of these chains, apply good practices and it is more difficult for them to present an outbreak of disease, as happened with small producers.