Egg prices ‘expected to soar’ in Japan after record cull of 10 million birds amid massive outbreak of avian flu

As someone that keeps chickens and sells eggs I’m not convinced recent price rises are a result of the culls. 10 million birds is around 5% of the national flock (assuming my rather dodgy maths is correct) which is a not insignificant number but at the same time it’s not a large percentage.

What has increased rapidly is the price of feed, it has tripled in price. We used to buy from a large producer as it was so cheap but now make our own from local ingredients. We are lucky that we can get waste rice and grains from local farmers that aren’t available on a large scale for big producers.

For big commercial egg farms this isn’t an option and they’ve seen their costs soar. Some areas have also started cutting the subsidies large farms receive which cushioned those farmers.

Tags: Japan, eggs