The price of egg touched ₹ 5.75 a piece in Namakkal on Sunday. The poultry owners attributed the price rise to increase in demand and escalating fodder costs.

Five to six crore eggs are produced every day at the 1,100 poultry farms in Namakkal district. Of these, 1.50 to 1.75 crore eggs are sent to Kerala every day, 45 lakh eggs go for the Noon Meal scheme, 40 lakh eggs are sold to Bengaluru, and the remaining eggs are sold across the State, apart from catering to export orders and requirements of other States.

Chairman of the Tamil Nadu Egg Poultry Farmers Marketing Society, Vangli Subramaniam said that in January 2023, the price of egg was fixed at ₹5.65 a piece. In December, the price was increased to ₹ 5.70 or ₹5.75. The cost of production per egg ranged from ₹ 5 to ₹ 5.25. Due to increased consumption in north Indian States and escalating fodder costs (by almost 50 %), the price of eggs went up. The egg price in Namakkal was 20 paise less compared with the price in Hyderabad. So, Namakkal was getting more orders, he said.

“We expect the price to reach ₹6 per egg in the coming days. But after the second week of January, the price will come down to ₹5.50,” Mr. Subramanian added.