Accompanied by her husband and daughter, Verónica Yagual arrived on Friday, April 14, at the Central Market in search of fruit and other products. With a small bag in her hands, she was looking for the best prices to take home and from now on calculate how much it will cost to put together a lunch box for her little girl from next Monday, April 24, when classes start in the Costa and Galapagos regime.

Other parents scoured the aisles of the market for other products, such as eggs, which for many are also a part lunch School children. And they came across the news that the price was still rising.

The price of eggs has been affected by bird flu and has increased by 20% since the beginning of last March, according to associations such as the National Corporation of Poultry Breeders of Ecuador (Conave), which publishes a weekly price index, which includes this product.

Inflation in March was 0.06 percent, driven by the increase in the price of eggs

This was also reflected in the inflation results for March, which amounted to 0.06%. Eggs topped the Food and Soft Drinks Department’s list of the 10 most influential products in the survey conducted every month by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC).

This week, the average price for a bucket of 30 eggs, according to Conave, is $3.49. During a tour of the markets in Guayaquil, it was discovered that various merchants were selling them for no less than $3.70.

According to updated data from the Agency for Phytosanitary and Zoosanitary Regulation and Control (Agrocalidad), from last November to today, 1.2 million birds, most of them laying birds, have been released due to viruses, 90% due to disease and 10% due to sacrifice. This represents 8% of the breeding birds in the country.

The reasons for the increase are well known to vendors, not only from the Central Market, but also from other supply centers such as the José Mascote Market. There, Geovanni, the owner of a stand that sells products such as yogurt, sausages and cheeses in addition to eggs, confirmed that a bucket of eggs costs $3.80 – 50 cents more than the usual average of $3.30 before – although he has other options, such as a bucket of small eggs that sells for $3.40 and that, before bird flu hit, sold for $2.70.

Despite these price increases causing inconvenience to customers, they did not stop buying them, although less often, commented other stall owners at the visited markets.

Slaughter of 8% of the laying population due to bird flu affects up to 28% more on the price of eggs

Meanwhile, in the case of fruits, their prices vary in each location. For example: a pound of blackberries sells for between $1.25 and $1.50; small papayas between $0.75 and $1.25, depending on size and up to four pears are sold for $1.

Buyers and sellers agree that the price of fruit has not increased and buyers hope that with the beginning of classes, there will be no price increase, while traders expect a recovery in sales of these and other products, such as dairy products and juices. For now, those who make sales in these establishments are people who have their own soda bars, which contain bananas, strawberries, blackberries, papaya, green and red grapes, cantaloupe and kiwi.