The authorities are frantically trying to stabilize rising egg prices: what to expect for the New Year

Experts explained whether there will be any benefit from the measures

The cost of chicken eggs for 2023, according to Rosstat, has increased by almost 40%, and in November they immediately increased in price by 15%. The price of this product varies depending on the type of outlet. Thus, in regular stores, prices for eggs have increased more than in grocery chains. The government is aware of the problem: they have already proposed a number of measures to stabilize the situation. MK found out from experts whether the authorities will be able to reduce egg prices before the New Year and what else needs to be done to achieve this.

The average retail price of a dozen eggs today is 111.9 rubles. According to the deputy chairman of the board of the Rusprodsoyuz association, Dmitry Leonov, eggs have become more expensive this fall due to a number of factors. Firstly, there was a jump in egg consumption due to the rise in price of chicken meat and the transition of buyers to a cheaper protein product. Secondly, there was a difficult epidemiological situation with bird flu, the spread of which led to the closure of poultry farms in different regions and this reduced the supply of eggs on the market. The third factor is an increase in costs due to increased costs of logistics and packaging, spare parts for sorting machines, vaccines and premixes, which depend on exchange rates and are often delivered by parallel imports. In addition, a new factor has emerged that cannot be ignored – the shortage of agricultural personnel and the rise in wages against this background.

What did this lead to? For example, to the scene in the “convenience store”, which was witnessed by the MK correspondent. There, chicken eggs were sold… individually, and in front of me, an elderly customer put three pieces in a bag, paying 30 rubles for them at the checkout.

In Russia, 46.2 billion eggs are consumed annually – approximately 308 eggs per person per year. “Russia depends on import supplies for egg products,” says Khadzhimurad Belkharoev, associate professor at the Institute of World Economy and Business of the RUDN University. — The incubator eggs from which the chicks hatch are purchased abroad in quantities of about 400 million pieces per year. Day-old chicks that are raised within the country are also imported: about 6 million of them are bought per year. Russia also purchases all food additives, vitamins, and part of the bird feed abroad. Due to the supply disruption now, egg prices have increased.”

The authorities are already taking measures to stabilize the situation: the government suspended the export of eggs and increased their imports, and poultry farms were offered preferential loans. In parallel with this, “voluntarily-compulsorily” (with the participation of the Federal Antimonopoly Service) they limited the markups of retail chains specifically on eggs. “The combination of these measures should restrain further price increases, but you should not expect a significant decrease, since in most cases prices tend to change unilaterally – upward,” says a lecturer at the Department of Political Economy and History of Economic Science at the Russian Economic University. Plekhanova Katerina Volkova.

There are also producers in some regions who, taking advantage of their monopoly position in their market niche, further inflate prices for eggs, but the FAS is already dealing with this. “Of course, inspections by antimonopoly authorities and verbal interventions from the authorities alone will not solve the problem of reducing prices for eggs, as well as for other food products,” believes Natalya Milchakova, leading analyst at Freedom Finance Global. “Fixing or temporarily freezing the cost of eggs will certainly not solve the problem: otherwise there will be a shortage of this essential commodity.” According to the expert, the reasons for the rise in prices for eggs are primarily market ones, and the increase in price is caused mainly by an increase in demand for this product and high inflation in Russia as a whole. This means that the state, first of all, needs to reduce inflation, and as inflation in general declines, which the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Finance are strenuously fighting today, the rise in prices for certain food products, including eggs, will also be restrained, Milchakova noted.

According to Volkova, the measures taken by the government will give the expected effect in the near future, and for the long-term provision of the population with eggs and other food products, it is necessary to develop relevant industries based on the most advanced technologies. It is necessary to support livestock breeding and processing using the most modern biotechnologies, and this is not a quick process, resting on the transition to domestic modern equipment and raw materials, the prevention of poultry diseases, the expansion of measures to support farming and manual price regulation. But this is all a strategic level of management; it requires time. And by the coming New Year the situation is unlikely to change. “Most likely, by the holiday, the demand for eggs and chicken will increase even more, but at the end of January we can expect a decrease in their prices,” Semyon Kramskoy, director of the trade agency S-Trade, predicted the dynamics of the cost of the product for the holidays.

Well, while the authorities are trying to bring order to the prices of eggs, experts are thinking about how they could help certain categories of low-income citizens, for whom this is, of course, an essential product. “The solution could be to subsidize the purchase of basic food products for the poor,” says Dmitry Yanin, chairman of the board of the International Confederation of Consumer Societies (ConfOP). The launch of a system that would allow people living below the poverty line to receive a cash subsidy from the state on their bank card for the purchase of simple food products could support the poorest compatriots, the expert assures.