Eggs have not stopped rising since the beginning of the year. In fact, they were the most inflationary food category between January 1 and March 31 (+8.6%) due to, among other factors, a national context of increased consumption and the international impact of avian flu in several European countries and the US.
The CPI published this Friday confirms this escalation, which is also noticeable in the annual comparison (+11.4%) and, of course, in the monthly comparison because this product has become 7.2% more expensive in the last 30 days.
The truth is that the Spanish industry, and that of the rest of the European Union, is facing numerous challenges that, all together, contribute to this increase in prices.
On the one hand, numerous farms have already initiated the conversion process to eliminate cage systems and replace them with alternative ones that require more space for fewer laying hens. This will reduce egg production and, in addition, remove cage eggs from the market, which are the cheapest.
On the other hand, national consumption is rising, at least in households, because families bought 3% more product last year than the previous year, which, in absolute values, was about 13 million kilos more, that is, about 245 million more M-size eggs.
In addition, although Spain is so far free of outbreaks of avian flu on farms, the impact of this disease is very relevant in the United States and several European countries that are seeing their egg production fall significantly.
At the European level, this places Spain as a privileged country when it comes to sending eggs to these destinations. With regard to the United States, it is not ruled out that the national sector will also begin to send eggs to mitigate, in part, the lack of supply in the North American country.
Three weeks ago, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, ruled out, in statements to EFE, that there could soon be a situation of lack of eggs, as is happening in the United States due to the impact of avian influenza, and believes that the reason for the price rise is multifactorial.
Therefore, a series of coincidences are taking place in the market that, as a whole, are pushing the price of eggs upwards, as reflected in the CPI for March published this Friday.
