Thai Measures to stabilize egg prices and egg oversupply during the Vegetarian Festival and School Break
The Department of Livestock Development encouraged 78 million surplus eggs to be exported during the “vegetarian festival and school break” season in order to combat falling egg prices. A fund was established to purchase eggs from egg farmers at 3.90 Baht per egg. This stabilized the ex-farm egg price at 4 Baht per egg. They bought between 200,000 and 300,000 eggs every day.
On 29 August, four egg farmer associations, four cooperatives, and sixteen breeders (PS)companies met to discuss stabilizing egg prices. To prepare for the upcoming festival season, when eggs are typically oversupplied, they discussed egg production and price trends for September and October 2023. The goal was to support egg prices to cover production costs, not increase them.
Currently, 52.91 million egg-laying hens produce 43.92 million eggs per day. The cost of eggs ex-farm is 4.00 Baht per egg, day-old chick price is 28 Baht each, pullet price is 175 Baht, as reported by CPF (Charoen Pokphand Foods). In the third quarter of 2023, egg production costs are estimated at 3.67 Baht per egg. These costs are expected to rise due to higher feed prices, fuel costs, and breeding costs.
Therefore, the Department of Livestock Development requests egg farmers’ cooperation. They urge farmers to remove egg-laying hens from production after 80 weeks of age, with exceptions for smaller farms with fewer than 30,000 hens. They are also seeking cooperation from large-scale egg farmers with over 100,000 hens to remove egg-laying hens at 78 weeks of age, until December 2023. Additionally, poultry breeders (PS) are encouraged to export or remove egg-laying hens from production before they reach 72 weeks of age, reducing the egg surplus on the market. The total target is 78 million eggs, with an average of 2 containers per day, between September and December 2023.
With these measures, egg prices will be stabilized during the festival and school break periods, as well as to address the oversupply issue.
Source: Thansettakij Newspaper, Issue 3,921, Date 10-13 September 2023
