Fortune telling with eggs: will the product become more expensive or cheaper by Easter?

Experts advise buying eggs for future use, like buckwheat or rice.

There is still almost a month until the Holy Resurrection of Christ, and the information space of the media is already vying with each other to make their forecasts: will chicken eggs become more expensive before the holiday? On the one hand, this happens every year – the demand for eggs before Easter skyrockets. On the other hand, eggs are now a strategic product: the government, on the instructions of the president, is taking all measures to bring down the price of them. And not without success: in recent weeks, the cost of eggs has stabilized and even the national average has decreased somewhat. So which of the two opposing trends will win at Easter?

Will an egg be expensive on Christ’s Day? The question matters to Russians. Over the past 12 years, the consumption of chicken eggs per capita in our country has increased by 23 pieces and amounts to 308 pieces per year. Russians according to this indicator took 7th place in the world, inferior mainly to Asian countries – Hong Kong, China, Japan.. .

It’s clear why there is such a high demand for eggs – they are the most affordable source of protein. More precisely, it was the most affordable for our country until 2023, because last year the price of chicken eggs increased by more than one and a half times, to 150 rubles per dozen. And in some regions the jump was even larger. All this caused mass indignation among the population, questions on a direct line to the president, and meetings in the government. As a result, urgent measures were taken by the Cabinet of Ministers – prices stabilized and even began to retreat from the record heights of last year.

In any case, at present, when imported eggs from other countries are actively coming to Russia, Rosstat reports that the price of chicken eggs at retail has fallen by an average of 5%.

But then a new test arrived for the eggs. On May 5, Orthodox Christians will celebrate the Bright Feast of the Resurrection of the Lord – and by Easter this product traditionally becomes more expensive. There is no need to guess at the tea leaves here: our trade always responds to increased demand by increasing prices. But will this trick work for sellers now that the Federal Antimonopoly Service and other regulatory authorities are closely monitoring the price dynamics of eggs?

Chairman of the Board of the Association of Market Retail Experts Andrei Karpov believes that the demand for eggs at the end of April will not be as high as was noted in December, when our fellow citizens were preparing for the New Year. In addition, chains expect massive purchases of white eggs, which are traditionally dyed in different colors. Now, a price increase for them cannot be ruled out. In this regard, a brown egg is unlikely to be of particular interest to the buyer.

“There is a potential danger of price increases,” says our interlocutor Andrei Karpov. – A slight trend is already noticeable today, in some places the price of a dozen eggs has increased by 1-3 rubles. However, the fact is that current prices are already at a very high level compared to last year. Even if large stores want to take advantage of the pre-holiday situation, there will still not be any noticeable increase in prices.

– The government is taking serious measures to curb prices for chicken eggs. Did imported supplies of eggs help?

– There are practically no imports in retail; those millions of pieces that come to Russia from Azerbaijan and Turkey do not play a role in our market at all. After all, we consume 4.5 billion eggs a month. Relatively significant supplies come only from Belarus. By the way, last year there were some problems with supplies, which is partly why eggs went up in price in Russia.

– Considering the special attention of the authorities specifically to this product, can prices for it decrease?

– I don’t rule out this option. The FAS and other regulatory authorities have already taken strict control of the situation. There are reports in the information field that some farms have already received fabulous profits from rising egg prices. If such information “spurs” the controllers and the facts are confirmed, then eggs may become cheaper before the holiday. I believe that in 10 days it will become clear whether the price of eggs will increase or decrease in price.

In general, it is clear that if in some retail chains the prices for this product are “adjusted,” it is not fatal. And if any of the buyers do not want to take risks and wait until the end of the month, when there is a sharp increase in purchases, eggs can be bought for future use, like buckwheat or rice.

Moscow region farmer Dmitry Kolistratov, a part-time student at the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, says that in the old days people stopped eating eggs at the beginning of Lent. They collected them and stored them until Easter Sunday. And today, according to him, eggs will stay in the refrigerator for a month and a half without spoiling.