The latest edition of the Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook released on February 18th confirms the discrepancy in the price of eggs compared to other proteins in 2019.

The USDA Economic Research Service recorded a 1.8 percent inflation in food price between 2018 and 2019. Beef, pork and turkey meat were higher by 2.0, 2.6 and 1.3 percent respectively. Broiler boneless breasts were down 1.9 percent. In contrast eggs were lower by 19.9 percent as a result of overproduction relative to demand. Production increased by 3.3 percent to 7,952 million dozen but domestic disappearance increased at a lower rate of 2.1 percent between 2018 and 2019 to 284 eggs per capita.

The solution to low prices is inevitably low prices. It is anticipated that less-efficient producers will cease production or be acquired in 2020 since availability of working capital will be the determinant of survival. Banks are increasingly reluctant to fund expansion or conversion to cage-free housing based on capacity to service loans, the value of specialized egg-production facilities as collateral and a growing realization of the price elasticity of shell eggs that represent over 66 percent of U.S sales.