Consumers in the city have been shelling out more to buy eggs, a staple in many homes. One egg that was priced at ₹5 is now sold at ₹6 - 7, forcing many to think twice before going for that additional egg for the family.
“We use 12 eggs a week and if I had to pay for two more eggs, I would cut that down. I don’t consume eggs, it is for the children that I buy,” said Kausalya, a homemaker of Kannagi Nagar.
Various factors including higher demand in north India due to the cold weather and reduction in production in Namakkal have led to the price hike. “We expect these prices to stabilise and go back to ₹5 in retail market in about three weeks time,” said Ashok Kishan, National Egg Coordination Committee, Chennai Zone.
In Namakkal, the wholesale price on Wednesday stood at ₹4.74 and in Chennai it was ₹5.45 per egg, which has driven the retail price to go up. “However, only now egg producers would be able to earn something that would help cover all costs. When you consider the kind of investments they make on land, infrastructure, pollution control, feed, clearing chicken waste and other things, the money they usually earn on eggs is not much,” Mr. Kishan said.
G. Ravindran of Rajeshwari Stores in Velachery, said egg sales like other commodities too has taken a beating. “Even those in the IT sector look at prices before buying daily needs. We have been buying eggs at ₹5.50 each and selling at ₹6 each. There is not much profit in this,” he said.
Restaurants too are finding the increase a bit hard to digest. K. Divakaran, who runs Kalpaga Restaurant on TTK Road, said every price increase, including that of vegetables, is a matter of concern.
“We cannot increase the prices every time something goes up. We use a lot of eggs on our menu and omelettes are among our high demand items. We have factored the price keeping in mind such price increases. We will absorb this increase and not pass it on to customers,” he said.
