Egg demand is not visibly shaken in Kerala following bird flu break-out in West Bengal, but the price is. From Rs 2.20 per piece, the egg price has done a humpty-dumpy crash to just Rs 1.50 per piece.
It’s sunny side up for the egg-eaters, who are many in urban areas, says M K Alavuddin, poultry products retailer at Chalai market in Thiruvananthapuram. Although there may be the occasional health freaks keeping off the poultry diet for a while, bird flu tidings from West Bengal has not significantly affected the sales.
“Price fall is a sheer market response to an egg glut,” insists CJ George, president of Kerala Egg Dealers Association. Due to the export market, he would rather not directly link the price fall to bird flu scare, pointing out that this kind of reasoning could damage egg business.
Neither Kerala nor Tamil Nadu has reported bird flu so far. Veterinary vigil has been stepped up in Kerala borders, over the fowl stocks brought to the state. Recent egg production surplus in Tamil Nadu, targetting the booming egg export market, had spilled over to the neighbouring states causing price fall, explained dealers. About 40 lakh eggs were exported from Namakkal in Tamil Nadu. Birdflu scare had forced the stocks earmarked for exports to be diverted to domestic production.
Out of the 25 million eggs per day produced in Namakkal, nearly eight million per day are sent to feed the egg-deficit Kerala market. Due to high per capita consumption in Kerala, with inadequate local production, egg price in retail had been ruling in at a whopping Rs 2.20-Rs 2.50 price band (per egg) last year. While egg dealers are hoping that the price fall will create a huge egg appetite, confectionary-makers are a mock-regretful mood over the delay in the market glut.
“If this had happened two months back, it would have saved us the input prices of Christmas cakes,” rues Markos Kuriakose, a bakery-owner in the Kerala capital.