MANILA, Philippines — The farmgate price for eggs has dropped by at least P1 per piece, but retail prices continue to be high at P9.50 per piece in markets, the United Broiler Raisers Association (UBRA) reported yesterday.
Gregorio San Diego, UBRA chairman, said egg producers are now selling below P5 per piece for pullet size.
“There is an oversupply, that is why the farmgate price decreased but the demand dropped because of the limited buying power of consumers,” San Diego said.
Based on monitoring of the DA in Metro Manila markets, the retail price of medium eggs ranged from P7.16 to P8.50 per piece.
“The poultry raisers suffer as the farmgate price does not reflect the retail prices. We have oversupply of eggs from the farmers because of lesser demand in the market. We even suffer losses when selling our eggs to the traders as they buy from us at very low prices,” San Diego said.
He blamed the traders for the high retail prices of eggs.
According to San Diego, the high cost of production, particularly feeds, are contributing to the suffering of egg producers.
Irwan Ambal, Philippine Egg Board president, earlier noted a 20 percent decline in the population of chicken layers in Luzon since January 2022 because of the avian influenza outbreak.