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Egg prices increase to record high despite Trump's predictions and bird flu outbreak slowing

apnews.com

Egg prices increase to record high despite Trump's predictions and bird flu outbreak slowing

Fuck The USA @lemmy.ca

US egg prices increase to record high, dashing hopes of cheap eggs by Easter

Economics @lemmy.world

Egg prices increase to record high despite Trump's predictions and bird flu outbreak slowing

36 comments
  • So the two takeaways from this article are:

    1. Trump is full of shit, and
    2. Corporations are greedy and won’t lower prices despite lower costs - they need something to push them.
  • I grew up poor. Eggs were always a cheap source of protein. Peanuts and chicken also fall into the category of cheap protein. Eggs are unreasonably expensive at the moment. Beans and peanuts are still cheap and there are meats like pork and beef that aren't affected by bird flu. It seems like the same bullshit here in Japan with the rice prices. It was 900 yen for 5kg of rice until last year when they jacked it up to over 3500 yen and now it's 5000 yen. The price went up 5X in a year and there is no shortage. You can always find rice in the store. There have been tariffs on foreign rice for decades. It seems like Japanese and Americans are not so different. The corporations rip us off and we just bend over and take it.

    • The price went up 5X in a year and there is no shortage. You can always find rice in the store.

      I can't find the link, but there was a big online discussion about this phenomenon. There is a shortage at the wholesale level. And it's reshaping how these basic commodities are distributed. You don't see it because you're high enough on the income pyramid that "shortage" is revealed as "higher price to discourage consumption" rather than "oops, none left".

      But I'm willing to bet you're going to see certain manufacturers that consume large volumes of lower grade rice (rice candy, rice alcohol, etc) taking a huge hit as their nearly-free commodity dries up.

      Either way, there's stock on the shelves in no small part because bulk buyers are being priced out.

      • The other problem is that regardless of whether the shortage is real or propaganda, the Japanese government makes it very difficult to buy foreign rice. Imported rice could provide relief but you can't find it. I have access to shop on US bases because I'm a veteran. There is high quality US grown short grain rice, which is what the Japanese prefer, for about 500 yen a kilogram. And long grain California rice and Thai rice that is much cheaper, but not as tasty as short grain rice. Japan could make more imported rice available but then the farmers in Japan wouldn't be able to fail to meet the country's food demand and get rewarded with more money. New weather patterns from climate change require farmers to grow more heat resistant strains of rice. The farmers, in typical Japanese fashion, would rather have a root canal with no anesthetic than change even the smallest thing.

    • The rich and powerful all over the world sold us the lie that they were ordained by "god," to be the most fit to rule, and even after we have removed most of the kings and emperors, that lie persists.

  • It won’t matter to magats cos eggs was their front to avoid admitting that they are racist and sexist

  • It peaked last month but has actually dropped a lot since then: https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/eggs-us

    I assume it's because the price was so ridiculously high that the reduction in sales was finally felt by suppliers. Trump did nothing to help.

    • Your link is wholesale prices of white non-organic caged eggs, updated daily. It also excludes the eggs sold on long term contracts.

      The AP article takes the CPI report of the consumer price of all eggs (white vs brown, organic vs non organic, caged versus cage free versus free range) in a weighted average of how much is sold, and averages over the entire month. Plus retailers simply can't update prices daily, and prefer to price things at numbers that end in 9.

      The bird flu issues seemed to affect caged non-organic producers harder, so that those prices moved a lot more than the free range organic stuff. That led to some unexpected flips of which was more expensive, as I'd seen some traditional eggs going for $8.99 (up from around $3 before) while the free range organic stuff was only slightly up to $7.99 (up from about $5 before), literally in the same store on the same shelves.

      Taken all together, you'd expect the monthly CPI price of an average of all types of eggs to be much less volatile than the daily wholesale spot price of the cheapest type of grade A whole fresh eggs.

      Anecdotally I've already seen egg prices drop this month. Lots more availability of the sub-$5 options when I was in the store earlier this week. I'd expect next month's CPI report, about the current month, to reflect a drop in retail egg prices.

  • Adjudicated rapist (inmate #P01135809) who is formerly known as the former presidential placeholder but is now currently known as the current presidential placeholder says: "Shut up about egg prices."

    "I'm busy retaliating against the retaliations."

36 comments