Egg prices tick up

Egg prices in Namakkal climbed to ₹4.55 apiece on April 13 after a late-March slump, with local reporting tying the rebound to heat-hit output. (mathrubhumi.com) Mathrubhumi reported the price was ₹3.85 on March 27, stayed flat through April 8, rose to ₹4.15 on April 9, and then added 5 paise on successive days before a 25-paise jump to ₹4.55 on Sunday. The same report said Mysuru was at ₹5.20, Hyderabad at ₹4.75, and both Vijayawada and Bengaluru at ₹5.00. (mathrubhumi.com) In Delhi, wholesale reference prices have also been moving day to day. A Daryaganj market tracker showed ₹5.03 per egg on April 12, up from ₹4.33 on March 30 and ₹4.63 on April 8. (market.todaypricerates.com) Namakkal matters because it is one of India’s biggest egg hubs. The New Indian Express reported in March that the region produces about six crore eggs a day, with roughly 75 lakh to one crore usually exported, mainly to the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf markets. (newindianexpress.com) That export link has made prices unusually choppy this year. On March 8, The New Indian Express reported that about 3.5 crore eggs shipped on February 28 were stranded at sea, and farmers said they were selling at around ₹3.50 against a National Egg Coordination Committee rate of ₹4.30. (newindianexpress.com) Farmers and traders have been describing two different pressures within weeks of each other: export disruption pushing surplus eggs into the domestic market in March, and hotter weather trimming production in April. Mathrubhumi attributed the latest rise to extreme heat, while The New Indian Express quoted exporters and farmers blaming the earlier crash on halted shipments. (mathrubhumi.com) (newindianexpress.com) India’s egg market is large enough that even short swings in a major hub ripple outward. The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority says India produced 142.77 billion eggs in 2023-24 and ranked second globally in total egg production. (apeda.gov.in) The benchmark prices consumers see each day are usually National Egg Coordination Committee reference rates rather than fixed retail tags. The committee, founded in 1982, publishes daily prices for production centers and those rates are used as indicative market benchmarks. (wikipedia.org) For households, restaurants, and bakeries, that means the egg is still a cheap staple whose price can change within days. For farmers in Namakkal, the next move depends on whether summer heat cuts supply faster than export trouble adds surplus. (mathrubhumi.com) (newindianexpress.com)