The meteoric rise in egg costs offers no respite | Economy | EUROtoday

A dry cleaner, a kids’s play park… any enterprise besides a hen farm to promote eggs. When Julián González (Madrid, 41 years previous) determined to maneuver from Venezuela to the small Toledo city of Orgaz, with 2,600 inhabitants, he didn’t have plans to dedicate himself to the countryside. That concept was only a retirement dream of his father. However, he says that “after studying and concluding that the egg sector was going to grow in Spain,” in January 2020 he determined to discovered La Pradera ecofarm along with his household, a small firm that produces 400 natural eggs day by day. The knowledge have confirmed him proper, since its consumption in Spain has grown by 17% within the final 5 years, in accordance with the newest knowledge from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA). This enhance in consumption has been accompanied by a meteoric rise in costs, 31% final 12 months, in accordance with knowledge from the buyer value index (CPI) supplied by the National Institute of Statistics. If the evolution since 2021 is taken into consideration, the worth has nearly doubled. Both González and all of the specialists consulted take into account that this enhance in costs strains the market and has a sophisticated answer.

Eloy Ureña, head of the poultry sector on the Coordinator of Farmers and Livestock Organizations (COAG), doesn’t dare to make definitive diagnoses, however he does level out that the worth of eggs in the intervening time “is high” and that, as a result of it will depend on so many components, “it is likely to remain that way.” The most up-to-date knowledge from monitoring carried out by the General Subdirectorate of Analysis, Coordination and Statistics of MAPA point out that the worth at origin of a dozen eggs from kind M caged hens is 1.95 euros and people of kind L (bigger) are 2.10. These are the most typical eggs in supermarkets, in accordance with the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU). However, the ultimate value within the retailer is larger: in December 2025, a dozen eggs value on common between 3.10 and three.30 euros in supermarkets, in accordance with knowledge collected by Facua.

One of probably the most disruptive components that designate the skyrocketing costs of this product is avian flu, which since final summer time has led to the slaughter of two.5 million chickens, though the epidemic is now extra managed. Ivan Díaz, professor of the Animal Health and Anatomy division on the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​highlights that Spain has not been the European nation that has suffered probably the most from this illness, however he emphasizes that “it has a devastating impact on laying birds.” Díaz provides that avian flu additionally generates a “climate of uncertainty” that makes it tough for farmers to consider growing manufacturing, which grew by 0.45% in 2024, in accordance with the newest knowledge from MAPA.

To tackle this imbalance between provide and demand, corporations have resorted to importing eggs. Thus, because the figures from the division led by Luis Planas element, the acquisition of this product from North Macedonia grew by 118.9% in comparison with 2024, that from Bosnia-Herzegovina, by 88.1% and that from Ukraine, by 81.4%. This issue, Ureña particulars, has allowed the worth enhance to not have been extra dramatic.

Regarding manufacturing, the president of the Spanish Federation of Companies within the Egg and Egg Products Production Sector (Federovo), Mari Luz de Santos, maintains that since August 2024 they’ve detected a rise within the value supplied by breeders. It factors to the reconversion that the sector should perform as one of many components that’s growing the price of the product. The European Commission proposed in 2021 the gradual elimination of the usage of cages in egg manufacturing to favor doing it instantly on the bottom, citing animal welfare causes. At the second, the laws that develops this normal has not been revealed, even supposing the European authorities promised that it could see the sunshine of day in 2023. The COAG spokesperson denounces that this variation “increases the costs” that farms should assume, since to “maintain the same number of eggs on the market, new warehouses must be built, more space is needed.”

This new mannequin additionally raises questions concerning the prevention of illnesses reminiscent of avian flu. Díaz, the animal well being skilled, factors out that if this new type of manufacturing signifies that birds can spend extra time open air, it is not going to assist stop well being crises just like the one we’re experiencing. Alfredo Corell, professor of Immunology on the University of Seville, provides that this transition “makes all the sense in the world from the point of view of animal welfare”, however that “moving to a system of more freedom requires more biosecurity and more surveillance.”

Production enhance

Experts agree that extra measures are wanted to enhance each the well being and financial state of affairs of this sector. For egg manufacturing to extend within the brief time period, Juan Vilar, physician in Economics and Business Sciences on the University of Jaén and analyst of the worldwide agri-food sector, factors to the necessity for “more young people working in the field, for generational change to be a reality.” This, Vilar argues, would give “a competitive advantage to Spanish poultry farming.”

Representatives of the sector agree that paperwork is among the fundamental issues to be solved to extend provide. Ureña, from COAG, asks “that it be reduced” to facilitate the change in mannequin demanded by the EU. De Santos, the president of Federovo, clarifies that to unravel this example, a single window have to be created the place producers can go to expedite the granting of recent authorizations. He additionally factors out that, regardless of all these difficulties, egg consumption will proceed to develop “because it has and will continue to have a very good quality-price ratio.” Thus, he factors out that though it’s dearer, it’s a meals that “contains a lot of protein, something that consumers value highly,” which has elevated its consumption, he argues. Additionally, seven out of ten customers desire to eat extra eggs than artificial dietary supplements, in accordance with the report The territory of the egg within the digital ageready by the Institute of Egg Studies in October.

More in the long run, Vilar is dedicated to the manufacturing of synthetic eggs based mostly on vegetable proteins reminiscent of pea to advertise sustainability and clean out potential imbalances between provide and demand. The examine Exploring the professionals and cons of vegetable alternate options to eggs, revealed by the scientific journal NFS Journal in October, factors out that this market will develop 8.3% yearly within the subsequent 5 years and that it has dietary advantages reminiscent of low ldl cholesterol and decrease saturated fat. However, this various, in the intervening time, is between two and 4 occasions dearer than the standard egg, the report highlights.

From a well being perspective, animal well being specialists Corell and Díaz agree that it’s essential to strengthen biosafety measures to scale back the chance of a repeat emergency just like the one skilled. The professor on the University of Seville focuses on the necessity to “increase control of the smallest farms.”

Small farmer González is conscious of those value and biosecurity challenges, besides, he doesn’t see unhealthy prospects within the egg sector. “It is still a protein that offers good value for money,” he argues. And he encourages those that need to dedicate themselves to this sector or one thing associated to the sphere to take action. In his opinion, “life in the country is not as difficult as it is portrayed; it is satisfying.”