[Orchardsmith]

This is from a news segment from Fox 5 News in San Diego. The quote is from a local large-scale egg producer. What does he mean? The link is below.

"Hilliker says the ranch sets aside a lot of eggs to sell directly to the community and they try to keep prices fair and consistent, even when it gets tough. The other side of the business involves wholesale.

“The egg market is all controlled by supply and demand. The government sends out a price every week and we follow it,” Hilliker said.

"It’s a large factor for why we are seeing prices soar."

HUH? Can someone explain what he means?

Supply shortage sends San Diegans searching for eggs

The bird flu has been causing supply issues since March and people in San Diego are finally feeling it.

fox5sandiego.com

 

[Orchardsmith]

I haven't boughten an egg, or a chicken, or chicken feed in 12 years. My costs are zero, I keep what we need, I give several dozen eggs a week to local folks that need them, granddaughter sells a bunch at the farm stand.

Interesting. What do they eat?

 

[Orchardsmith]

Well not really because supply and demand fluctuate from location to location. So if the USDA is sending out "national average prices" to local producers they are influencing the pricing and, therefore, it is no longer a function of supply and demand. No agency can 'set a price' in a supply-demand dynamic.

There is no "national market", the attempt to consolidate prices into some kind of national average, and sending those prices out as a model for pricing is price manipulation. Producers dont "set" prices in a true free market economy, its a bargaining process between supply [ producers ] and demand [ consumers ]. And it varies from place to place, moment to moment. Any attempt to short circuit that process contradicts the whole point of supply and demand.

All good points.

View attachment 117669

All fair points. In fairness, what I've been posting are the wholesale prices, so it's the price between the producer and the warehouse, not the consumer. The bargaining process is often a silent one at the grocery store when the consumer decides to pick up eggs at the price offered, or does not.

 

[Orchardsmith]

Here's the latest lunacy. "Make the FTC look into record profits," they shrieked! What a joke. US farm group calls for probe of high egg prices

 

[Orchardsmith]

No, wait! It's Big Egg gouging the consumers to dial up obscene profits! There might be a perfectly plausible explanation, but WE HAVE TO LOOK INTO THIS!! Ridiculous. TIME | Your Egg Prices Could Be So High Because of Price Gouging, Farm Group Says | Farm Action

 

[Orchardsmith]

I'm curious, are the meat chickens you're getting at the stores freshly killed and raw or are they frozen or previously frozen?

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Next time you're in the supermarket, ring up the meat department guy and ask him. Feel free to let us know what he says.

 

[Orchardsmith]

What I want to know, are meat chickens immune to avian flu or something? It just seems fishy that enough laying hens have been depopulated to quadruple the price of eggs yet the price of chicken in the meat case hasn't changed. And chickens start laying at 16 weeks so it shouldn't take this long to repopulate the flocks. Something just doesn't smell right.

Hatch to slaughter is only 8 weeks for a broiler. Look closely. The price of chicken is way up, too. Maybe we better have the USDA and the FTC look into price gouging by Big Egg and Big Rooster.

 

[Orchardsmith]

I'm not phoning long distance to a foreign country to ask the question when it's more easily answered online here for free.

I've worked in the meat departments in a couple of supermarkets and farmer's market butcher shops here and I already know how it works here. Sold fresh killed, previously frozen, and frozen. But that's here where I live and our laws are different, not necessarily the same as the laws in your foreign country.

Do you seriously not know the answer to the question?

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I don't shop at your grocery or at mocow's grocery. Good plan not to phone a foreign country.

 

[Orchardsmith]

January 30, 2023 wholesale egg prices Midwest large 3.05-3.09, mostly 3.02-3.05. The price is still very high, but way down from what it was. Kroger today in Greencastle, IN had large at 3.69.

 

[Orchardsmith]

Today in Kroger Greencastle, IN, 3.69.