Egg Prices Surge Ahead of Lunar New Year... Over 7,300 Won per Carton

On the 30th, eggs are displayed inside a Hanaro Mart store in Gyeonggi-do. The consumer price for a pack of 30 premium eggs is 7,800 won.

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] Ahead of the Seollal holiday, egg prices have soared, with a carton (special large eggs, 30 pieces) exceeding 7,000 won. This is the result of a combination of an increase in the number of laying hens culled due to highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) and a rise in demand as people avoid dining out due to the COVID-19 situation. The government expects that the distribution of imported fresh eggs will help stabilize prices, but immediate changes in market prices remain slow.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs on the 30th, as of 4 p.m. the previous day, the consumer price for 10 special large eggs was 2,450 won, a sharp increase of 38.8% compared to the same period last year. Considering that the average price last month was 1,876 won, this is an increase of over 30% in just one month. Simply calculated based on a carton of 30 eggs, the price is about 7,350 won.

The rise in farm-gate prices is even steeper. The farm-gate price for 10 special large eggs is 1,829 won, a surge of 57.9% compared to last year. Compared to the previous month (1,177 won), it rose by 56.2%.

The main reasons for the egg price increase are supply reduction and demand increase. As of midnight on the 29th, since the domestic AI confirmation in October, a total of 11,693,000 laying hens have been culled across 149 farms. This is due to the government's strengthened quarantine measures, which include preventive culling of poultry within a 3 km radius of farms where confirmed cases have been reported, not only the infected farms themselves.

The government is attempting to stabilize prices by expanding supply through imports. Until June 30, an emergency tariff rate quota of 0% has been temporarily applied to a total of 50,000 tons for eight items including eggs. Accordingly, on the 26th, a public competitive bidding was held for 60 tons (about 1.01 million eggs) of imported fresh eggs (from the United States), all of which were sold and have been supplied since the 27th. The 60-ton quantity sold this time will be supplied to restaurants, egg processing companies, and retailers, and the government plans to import additional quantities necessary for supply stabilization beyond the 60 tons by the end of this month and supply them directly to companies.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.