Speculation around eggs, prices and bird flu is not good

Everybody loves gossiping and speculating without having all of the information. I guess it is part of human nature. A few weeks ago, the rumor was that Mexican eggs were illegally crossing the border to the U.S. because of the high egg prices. The National Poultry Producers Association of Mexico (Unión Nacional de Avicultores – UNA) has been clear and straight forward in providing information:

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White eggs on a concrete table. One egg is cracked and you can see the yellow yolk
White eggs on a concrete table. One egg is cracked and you can see the yellow yolk
Getty Images/iStockphoto

Everybody loves gossiping and speculating without having all of the information. I guess it is part of human nature. A few weeks ago, the rumor was that Mexican eggs were illegally crossing the border to the U.S. because of the high egg prices. The National Poultry Producers Association of Mexico (Unión Nacional de Avicultores – UNA) has been clear and straight forward in providing information:

  • Mexico produces 99.9% of the domestic egg needs
  • There is no contraband of Mexican eggs to the U.S. From November 1, 2022, to January 17, 2023, the ridiculously low amount of 390 eggs per day of contraband were seized, while 136 million eggs per day are produced. Just make the comparison.

The news keeps talking about avian flu and the impact on prices. But again, UNA has been clear with the facts:

  • Avian flu outbreaks are controlled. Vaccination is working. A total of 140 million vaccine doses have been applied. A monitoring program is continuously running. Only the State of Yucatán has production units under quarantine. As a peninsula, the Yucatán happens to be geographically isolated from the rest of the country, which I would assume helps.
  • Avian flu has affected 5.6 million birds (up to the end of January 2023) in Mexico. This is not a significant impact on the industry’s capacity since the total domestic layer flock is 172 million layers.

Egg prices have broken records. I wonder who is behind that. Is it commodity prices? Intermediaries? Retailers? Experts say egg prices will still go up until next month and then will seasonally go down. It is temporary. These are the facts.

Yes, the inflation rate in Mexico has been historically high but has been under reasonable control for decades. Just in January 2023, it had an annual rate of 7.9%. However, it seems to me that the more you have, the more complaints you spew out. I am shocked to see how much well-to-do people complain about high egg prices in Mexico, when they have more than enough to afford the cheapest animal protein in the world. But people do not stop spending on superfluous things.

What do you think? 

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