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.
this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2025
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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.
Why would prices decrease when Americans time and time again show that we will just bend over and take whatever our corporate overlords dish out.
Literally have had little old people spending tons of gas money driving all over town looking for eggs when you couldn't find them. It was bonkers. Nobody needs eggs that badly, but they were willing to waste half the day just to get some at all, not even cheap.
Indeed, just bending over and taking it. Even lubing themselves up first, with this kind of behavior. Like the entire economy is a fucking Findom and all the consumers are Finsubs throwing their money at the Findom.
As someone who doesn't like eggs, I'm baffled. I've never purchased an egg in my life. There are many delicious things to eat without them. If they're so unreasonably expensive, it shouldn't be hard for the average person to just do without them.
I just need a handful to make some brownies. You can't really bake without eggs, so lots of business use them as a core ingredient. im sure you consume them somewhere.
Yes, I eat cakes and stuff containing eggs but I'd do without them if they became really expensive. I can understand bakeries requiring eggs but normal everyday people don't need them. You don't need to bake, you want to bake
Lol we just started the 2nd great depression. I need brownies.
Look up vegan baking. Theres like a dozen different egg replacers all with different flavors.
Oh i've had many a delicious vegan treats. But i'm not a vegan. I've raised chickens before for eggs and meat. It's looking like I will have to do it again this year! Like I told the other guy. The need for brownies is real. Poor people deserve fair access to brownies.
Real quick aside if ya can get a turkey hen and have the land for one or two they produce slightly bigger eggs than an americana hen. Also they may be easier to get since dumb yuppies in my area are going after chickens but not the quail or turkeys, only problem is it takes a bit longer for a turkey hen to start producing.
I do not. I would just check online, there are plenty of companies that will ship fertilized eggs.Incubators are easy to use. I wish you luck on your hunt and hope you get a nice chicken friend.
We usually also get fertilized eggs when we can, just a bit easier to get the chicks when I'm at the feed store. Anyways our hens and turkey are doing rather well, their pen turning into a mud pit from recent rain aside. They have a sheltered area that's dry it's just that about 30 percent of the open area is mud.
They're tempering the mud for the dust season. Dust baths incoming! I miss my pecky little friends.
So the two takeaways from this article are:
- Trump is full of shit, and
- Corporations are greedy and won’t lower prices despite lower costs - they need something to push them.
So, two things we already knew
He said they were lower this week, not a prediction. Just another one of his lies.
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.
It won’t matter to magats cos eggs was their front to avoid admitting that they are racist and sexist
"And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” — Trump about covid-19 in Feb 2020
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."
I'm guessing Denmark has just about the most expensive eggs in EU at about 4.00 EUR or 4.50 USD for 10.
So 5.20 USD for 10 eggs doesn't seem that expensive to me.
On the other hand, close to 1.00 USD for 12 eggs as it was not long ago, seems extremely cheap, so cheap that I doubt those can be made responsibly or be very good.
PS: The price in Denmark includes 25% VAT.
The issue is that we are still getting the same factory farm, low quality, bleach washed $1 eggs at ridiculous and obvious collusion pricing.
Yes, apparently the cheap production wasn't sustainable, and unable to handle infections.
I just find it crazy that it was even possible to produce them that cheap in the first place.
Horrible condition factory farming is unfortunately sustainable. The cost to produce eggs has not significantly increased and we've only culled ~4% of birds due to BF. On top of that i hear infections are slowing lately. But somehow prices have increased 4-10x, this shows prices are being fixed intentionally by the ~4 major US egg suppliers colluding.
Yes that's probably capitalism working as intended. 😋
Kartels are illegal, but if they can agree silently on not lowering prices again, I guess there is little anyone can do.
“He’s the Holy Prophet…He is not, nor ever was, The Eggman…”
This article is talking about month-old data. Egg prices have been dropping over the past few weeks and should continue to do so.
U.S. egg prices did began [sic] falling in mid-March, according to Datasembly, a market research company that tracks prices at thousands of stores. Datasembly said eggs averaged $5.98 per dozen the week beginning March 16 and dropped to $5.51 the week beginning March 30.
Yeah I was going to say the peak was definitely more than just $6 before the decline.
Our local Giant Eagle marked them up to around 9-10.00/dozen for a few weeks before marking them back down to 6.00. Im also skeptical the peak was only 6.00.