5 ms·

What's going on with eggs in the US? The whole world had high inflation after Covid, so that's not US-specific, but eggs tripling in price? That is extreme. I d

by mcv 2y ago

What's going on with eggs in the US? The whole world had high inflation after Covid, so that's not US-specific, but eggs tripling in price? That is extreme. I don't think my (Dutch, free-range organic) eggs went up more than 25%.

idlewords 2y ago
Bird flu is what's going on.
- autoexec 2y ago
  It's just greed. A couple years ago Cal-Maine Foods, whose birds were never infected at all, raised their prices anyway and their profits went up 718% https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/business/egg-profits-cal-maine/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/business/egg-profits-cal-main...
  - dan-robertson 2y ago
    Why is it that egg producer greed/generosity matches well with the times when there is an egg supply shortage/surfeit?
    - autoexec 2y ago
      it doesn't. The largest egg producer in the nation had no infected birds. There was no shortage. The companies just conspired to restrict supply so that they could gouge consumers and stuff their pockets. They were ordered to pay millions in fines because of it (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/egg-suppliers-ordered-to-pay-17-7-million/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/egg-suppliers-ordered-to-pay-17...) They successfully tricked you into thinking that their prices are set by supply and demand. They're probably not the only company fooling you either. For just one other example, literal tons of unsold/unworn, perfectly wearable and desirable clothing gets shipped overseas, burned, or thrown into the ocean or landfills. The excess supply of clothing is so vast that it's now a form of pollution (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/chile-fashion-pollution https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/chile...). If clothing prices were set by supply and demand they'd be paying us to take the clothes off the rack. Supply and demand are a good explanation of economics for grade schoolers, but it doesn't explain the world we live in.
      - renewiltord 2y ago
        You've got this great opportunity to outcompete Aritzia and you're not doing it? They have no hold over you. When they conspire, just don't play along, like Zuck rejected Apple. Pick 50% their margin. You'll be a billionaire in a year.
        autoexec 2y ago
        Zuckerberg has no ethics and is just mad that apple's lack of ethics isn't working in his favor. A businessman with ethics has very little chance of dethroning an entrenched cartel within a corrupt industry. The hypothetical ethical business looking to outcompete their rivals may be the only one willing to set fair prices, but they also won't be able/willing to do what their competitors do. They won't exploit slaves/children/workers to make their products. They won't bribe governments to pass laws and regulations to keep out competition. They won't cut corners by using poisons in their products and manufacturing knowing it will harm their workers and consumers. They won't dump their waste into the ocean and pollute the environment. They won't collude to set prices, limit supply, or shut out anyone who doesn't play along. The idea that you can defeat greedy corporations just by treating customers better is a fiction. There's always more money to be made by screwing over everyone at every opportunity, and there's no shortage of greedy people willing to do exactly that. It's why we need the kinds of laws, regulations, and enforcement that even the playing field and allow ethical companies to thrive. You can't jump into the middle of a rigged game where the referees have been bought off and expect to win by following all of the rules. You have to stop the cheaters and the cheating first to even have a chance.
        renewiltord 2y ago
        Oh I see. And how much would t-shirts made by this non-slave ethical corporation be?
        autoexec 2y ago
        I've never owned a t-shirt that wasn't made by an unethical clothing industry which uses child slaves and abuses workers in sweatshops to produce hundreds of tons of clothing filled with plastics and poison every single year most of which will be burned or left to rot in a desert on the other side of the world from the retail shop that overpriced it when they sold it to me. I have no idea what the fair market price of a t-shirt would be in a world where no one had to compete with the practices of the current industry. I do know that it'd be worth every penny. The price being paid now in environmental harm, inequality, and human suffering is way too high.
    - soerxpso 2y ago
      Because to certain people, when a company lowers prices to compete because of an increase in supply, it's the competitive free market doing its things (not generosity), but when they increase prices because of a decrease in supply, it's greed.
      - autoexec 2y ago
        It's always greed. Companies will charge as much as they possibly can while maximizing their profits. It doesn't matter if the price of something goes up or down this week, in either case the change only happens because the company thinks they'll make more money by offering the product at that new price.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
liminal-dev 2y ago
A sign of what's to come.
empath75 2y ago
Bird flu
bluedino 2y ago
Meanwhile, chicken prices haven't increased at KFC, Hooters, or Popeyes.
- ars 2y ago
  That's because chickens raised for meat don't live long enough to be affected. A second reason is because chickens get sick by contact with wild bids, due to free range laws for egg laying chickens. Meat chickens don't go outside, they are kept in large barns, although without the pens and egg collection of their egg laying sisters. So they are not affected.
brendoelfrendo 2y ago
An avian influenza outbreak has killed roughly 20 million chickens so far and is not yet over.
tzs 2y ago
Massive bird flu outbreak that has killed many egg laying chickens and required euthanizing many more to try to contain the spread. In just the last 3 months over 30 million chickens were killed, which is about 10% of the total US egg laying chicken population. Overall the US has lost so far something like 40% of its egg laying chickens.
- dkjaudyeqooe 2y ago
  I guess the flu hasn't made it to the EU, large eggs at Lidl have been about 28 cents each for many months now.
  - stevenwoo 2y ago
    Bird flu in the US has spread to wild animals and other species of wild and domesticated animals so it is very widespread, also there is a vaccine but poultry farms refuse to use it because of cost and it would make the meat/eggs not suitable for export, poultry producers have resorted to making their poultry farms as clean as possible, washing trucks that come onto property, making employees wash and wear protective clothing to prevent contamination and the disease still makes it onto these farms. The method we used last time we had bird flu pandemic on poultry farms was mass culling of flocks that had any infected birds, but it has not worked for long this time so the cycle of kill flock, clean everything out, raise new birds raises long term capital costs for poultry farmers in USA.
    - mcv 2y ago
      We've also had bird flu in NL some years ago, but I don't think it was anywhere near that dramatic. I do vaguely recall that it was mostly an issue for free range chickens, because they go outside and can get infected by wild birds shitting from above. I'd expect indoor chickens to be less vulnerable, though I do recall similar measures to prevent humans from spreading it. I think there have been rules that free range chickens need to get a roof over their heads to prevent spreading. It's still weird that it got so dramatically out of hand in the US this time.
barbarr 2y ago
Bird flu, made worse by concentrated farming of chickens. Those operations are basically disease factories and some bird flus come from them.
- ars 2y ago
  That's actually not true. Bird flu comes from wild birds, not factory farming. Chickens get it when wild birds land near them due to free range laws. The solution (possibly temporary) is to confine the chickens in sealed buildings so they can't contact the wild birds.
  - misantroop 2y ago
    And the reason why it spreads so well is still concentrated industrial farming.
    - ars 2y ago
      No, that's simply not true. It's being spread by wild birds, not concentrated farming. I know people love to blame "big anything", but it's just not true here. Here's a source: https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/virus-transmission/avian-in-birds.html https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/virus-transmission/avian-in-bir... "Domesticated birds (chickens, turkeys, ducks, etc.) may become infected with avian influenza A viruses through direct contact with infected waterfowl or other infected poultry, or through contact with surfaces that have been contaminated with the viruses."
      - miltonlost 2y ago
        "Domesticated chickens may become infected by wild waterfowl or by other infected poultry", and other infected poultry includes domesticated chickens. Nowhere in that web page does it say that domesticated chickens cannot spread it to other domesticated chickens. Once a domesticated chicken becomes infected (however it became infected) in a massive concentrated area, it will spread that infection to other domesticated chickens. You're conflating "spreading across chicken farms by flight" with "spreading within chicken farms by already infected chickens" and saying the first is true so therefore the second can be.
doctorpangloss 2y ago
People keep fucking buying them!
rsynnott 2y ago
Bird flu. Though, also, US inflation was _somewhat_ worse than Eurozone inflation (Eurozone peaked higher but rose later and fell faster).
pessimizer 2y ago
Price fixing under the cover of catastrophes, such as covid and bird flu. Frozen potatoes did the same thing over the past few years, without any excuse and without the prices of unfrozen potatoes going up similarly. I think the industry has decided that a dozen eggs are going to retail for $5, just because it's a nice round number that will have "support." A few months of paying $8-9 for them will make it seem like a drop to $5 is going back to normal, and make $2 eggs seem like a misremembered dream. https://www.newsweek.com/kroger-executive-admits-company-gouged-prices-above-inflation-1945742 https://www.newsweek.com/kroger-executive-admits-company-gou... https://apnews.com/article/egg-producers-price-gouging-lawsuit-conspiracy-8cd455003a3a40bab74d0f046d0f2c9d https://apnews.com/article/egg-producers-price-gouging-lawsu... ----- edit: (2023) https://farmaction.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Farm-Action-Letter-to-FTC-Chair-Lina-Khan.pdf https://farmaction.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Farm-Action... > The first case of avian flu in a commercial table-egg layer facility was detected on February 22 in Delaware. Over the ensuing Spring season, avian flu outbreaks would be reported in 10 states and result in the loss of 30.7 million egg-laying hens. After the end of May, however, avian flu discoveries would slow down dramatically. Notably, no hen losses were reported after the beginning of June except due to sporadic outbreaks in September, October, and November. All in all, the total number of egg-laying hens lost to avian flu in 2022 was around 43 million birds. Although these figures seem to support the theory that the avian flu outbreak of 2022 was significant, its actual impact on the egg supply was minimal. After accounting for chicks hatched during the year, the average size of the egg-laying flock in any given month of 2022 was never more than 7-8 percent lower than it was a year prior –– and in all but two months was never more than 6 percent lower. > Moreover, the effect of the loss of egg-laying hens on production was itself blunted by “record-high” lay rates observed among remaining hens throughout the year. With total flock size substantially unaffected by the avian flu and lay rates between one and four percent higher than the average rate observed between 2017 and 2021, the industry’s quarterly egg production experienced no substantial decline in 2022 compared to 2021. > [...] > Contrary to industry narratives, the increase in the price of eggs has not been an “Act of God” — it has been simple profiteering. For the 26-week period ending on November 26, 2022, Cal-Maine reported a ten-fold year-over-year increase in gross profits — from $50.392 million to $535.339 million — and a five-fold increase in its gross margins. Notably, Cal-Maine’s gross profits increased in lockstep with rising egg prices through every quarter of the year — going from nearly $92 million in the quarter ending on February 26, 2022, to approximately $195 million in the quarter ending on May 28, 2022, to more than $217 million in the quarter ending on August 27, 2022, to just under $318 million in the quarter ending on November 26, 2022. The company’s gross margins likewise increased steadily, from a little over 19 percent in the first quarter of 2022 (a 45 percent year-over-year increase) to nearly 40 percent in the last quarter of 2022 (a 345 percent year-over-year increase).

by mcv 2y ago

idlewords 2y ago

Bird flu is what's going on.

autoexec 2y ago
It's just greed. A couple years ago Cal-Maine Foods, whose birds were never infected at all, raised their prices anyway and their profits went up 718% https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/business/egg-profits-cal-maine/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/business/egg-profits-cal-main...
- dan-robertson 2y ago
  Why is it that egg producer greed/generosity matches well with the times when there is an egg supply shortage/surfeit?
  - autoexec 2y ago
    it doesn't. The largest egg producer in the nation had no infected birds. There was no shortage. The companies just conspired to restrict supply so that they could gouge consumers and stuff their pockets. They were ordered to pay millions in fines because of it (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/egg-suppliers-ordered-to-pay-17-7-million/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/egg-suppliers-ordered-to-pay-17...) They successfully tricked you into thinking that their prices are set by supply and demand. They're probably not the only company fooling you either. For just one other example, literal tons of unsold/unworn, perfectly wearable and desirable clothing gets shipped overseas, burned, or thrown into the ocean or landfills. The excess supply of clothing is so vast that it's now a form of pollution (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/chile-fashion-pollution https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/chile...). If clothing prices were set by supply and demand they'd be paying us to take the clothes off the rack. Supply and demand are a good explanation of economics for grade schoolers, but it doesn't explain the world we live in.
    - renewiltord 2y ago
      You've got this great opportunity to outcompete Aritzia and you're not doing it? They have no hold over you. When they conspire, just don't play along, like Zuck rejected Apple. Pick 50% their margin. You'll be a billionaire in a year.
      - autoexec 2y ago
        Zuckerberg has no ethics and is just mad that apple's lack of ethics isn't working in his favor. A businessman with ethics has very little chance of dethroning an entrenched cartel within a corrupt industry. The hypothetical ethical business looking to outcompete their rivals may be the only one willing to set fair prices, but they also won't be able/willing to do what their competitors do. They won't exploit slaves/children/workers to make their products. They won't bribe governments to pass laws and regulations to keep out competition. They won't cut corners by using poisons in their products and manufacturing knowing it will harm their workers and consumers. They won't dump their waste into the ocean and pollute the environment. They won't collude to set prices, limit supply, or shut out anyone who doesn't play along. The idea that you can defeat greedy corporations just by treating customers better is a fiction. There's always more money to be made by screwing over everyone at every opportunity, and there's no shortage of greedy people willing to do exactly that. It's why we need the kinds of laws, regulations, and enforcement that even the playing field and allow ethical companies to thrive. You can't jump into the middle of a rigged game where the referees have been bought off and expect to win by following all of the rules. You have to stop the cheaters and the cheating first to even have a chance.
        renewiltord 2y ago
        Oh I see. And how much would t-shirts made by this non-slave ethical corporation be?
        autoexec 2y ago
        I've never owned a t-shirt that wasn't made by an unethical clothing industry which uses child slaves and abuses workers in sweatshops to produce hundreds of tons of clothing filled with plastics and poison every single year most of which will be burned or left to rot in a desert on the other side of the world from the retail shop that overpriced it when they sold it to me. I have no idea what the fair market price of a t-shirt would be in a world where no one had to compete with the practices of the current industry. I do know that it'd be worth every penny. The price being paid now in environmental harm, inequality, and human suffering is way too high.
  - soerxpso 2y ago
    Because to certain people, when a company lowers prices to compete because of an increase in supply, it's the competitive free market doing its things (not generosity), but when they increase prices because of a decrease in supply, it's greed.
    - autoexec 2y ago
      It's always greed. Companies will charge as much as they possibly can while maximizing their profits. It doesn't matter if the price of something goes up or down this week, in either case the change only happens because the company thinks they'll make more money by offering the product at that new price.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

liminal-dev 2y ago

A sign of what's to come.

empath75 2y ago

Bird flu

bluedino 2y ago

Meanwhile, chicken prices haven't increased at KFC, Hooters, or Popeyes.

ars 2y ago
That's because chickens raised for meat don't live long enough to be affected. A second reason is because chickens get sick by contact with wild bids, due to free range laws for egg laying chickens. Meat chickens don't go outside, they are kept in large barns, although without the pens and egg collection of their egg laying sisters. So they are not affected.

brendoelfrendo 2y ago

An avian influenza outbreak has killed roughly 20 million chickens so far and is not yet over.

tzs 2y ago

Massive bird flu outbreak that has killed many egg laying chickens and required euthanizing many more to try to contain the spread. In just the last 3 months over 30 million chickens were killed, which is about 10% of the total US egg laying chicken population. Overall the US has lost so far something like 40% of its egg laying chickens.

dkjaudyeqooe 2y ago
I guess the flu hasn't made it to the EU, large eggs at Lidl have been about 28 cents each for many months now.
- stevenwoo 2y ago
  Bird flu in the US has spread to wild animals and other species of wild and domesticated animals so it is very widespread, also there is a vaccine but poultry farms refuse to use it because of cost and it would make the meat/eggs not suitable for export, poultry producers have resorted to making their poultry farms as clean as possible, washing trucks that come onto property, making employees wash and wear protective clothing to prevent contamination and the disease still makes it onto these farms. The method we used last time we had bird flu pandemic on poultry farms was mass culling of flocks that had any infected birds, but it has not worked for long this time so the cycle of kill flock, clean everything out, raise new birds raises long term capital costs for poultry farmers in USA.
  - mcv 2y ago
    We've also had bird flu in NL some years ago, but I don't think it was anywhere near that dramatic. I do vaguely recall that it was mostly an issue for free range chickens, because they go outside and can get infected by wild birds shitting from above. I'd expect indoor chickens to be less vulnerable, though I do recall similar measures to prevent humans from spreading it. I think there have been rules that free range chickens need to get a roof over their heads to prevent spreading. It's still weird that it got so dramatically out of hand in the US this time.

barbarr 2y ago

Bird flu, made worse by concentrated farming of chickens. Those operations are basically disease factories and some bird flus come from them.

ars 2y ago
That's actually not true. Bird flu comes from wild birds, not factory farming. Chickens get it when wild birds land near them due to free range laws. The solution (possibly temporary) is to confine the chickens in sealed buildings so they can't contact the wild birds.
- misantroop 2y ago
  And the reason why it spreads so well is still concentrated industrial farming.
  - ars 2y ago
    No, that's simply not true. It's being spread by wild birds, not concentrated farming. I know people love to blame "big anything", but it's just not true here. Here's a source: https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/virus-transmission/avian-in-birds.html https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/virus-transmission/avian-in-bir... "Domesticated birds (chickens, turkeys, ducks, etc.) may become infected with avian influenza A viruses through direct contact with infected waterfowl or other infected poultry, or through contact with surfaces that have been contaminated with the viruses."
    - miltonlost 2y ago
      "Domesticated chickens may become infected by wild waterfowl or by other infected poultry", and other infected poultry includes domesticated chickens. Nowhere in that web page does it say that domesticated chickens cannot spread it to other domesticated chickens. Once a domesticated chicken becomes infected (however it became infected) in a massive concentrated area, it will spread that infection to other domesticated chickens. You're conflating "spreading across chicken farms by flight" with "spreading within chicken farms by already infected chickens" and saying the first is true so therefore the second can be.

doctorpangloss 2y ago

People keep fucking buying them!

rsynnott 2y ago

Bird flu. Though, also, US inflation was _somewhat_ worse than Eurozone inflation (Eurozone peaked higher but rose later and fell faster).

pessimizer 2y ago

Price fixing under the cover of catastrophes, such as covid and bird flu. Frozen potatoes did the same thing over the past few years, without any excuse and without the prices of unfrozen potatoes going up similarly. I think the industry has decided that a dozen eggs are going to retail for $5, just because it's a nice round number that will have "support." A few months of paying $8-9 for them will make it seem like a drop to $5 is going back to normal, and make $2 eggs seem like a misremembered dream. https://www.newsweek.com/kroger-executive-admits-company-gouged-prices-above-inflation-1945742 https://www.newsweek.com/kroger-executive-admits-company-gou... https://apnews.com/article/egg-producers-price-gouging-lawsuit-conspiracy-8cd455003a3a40bab74d0f046d0f2c9d https://apnews.com/article/egg-producers-price-gouging-lawsu... ----- edit: (2023) https://farmaction.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Farm-Action-Letter-to-FTC-Chair-Lina-Khan.pdf https://farmaction.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Farm-Action... > The first case of avian flu in a commercial table-egg layer facility was detected on February 22 in Delaware. Over the ensuing Spring season, avian flu outbreaks would be reported in 10 states and result in the loss of 30.7 million egg-laying hens. After the end of May, however, avian flu discoveries would slow down dramatically. Notably, no hen losses were reported after the beginning of June except due to sporadic outbreaks in September, October, and November. All in all, the total number of egg-laying hens lost to avian flu in 2022 was around 43 million birds. Although these figures seem to support the theory that the avian flu outbreak of 2022 was significant, its actual impact on the egg supply was minimal. After accounting for chicks hatched during the year, the average size of the egg-laying flock in any given month of 2022 was never more than 7-8 percent lower than it was a year prior –– and in all but two months was never more than 6 percent lower. > Moreover, the effect of the loss of egg-laying hens on production was itself blunted by “record-high” lay rates observed among remaining hens throughout the year. With total flock size substantially unaffected by the avian flu and lay rates between one and four percent higher than the average rate observed between 2017 and 2021, the industry’s quarterly egg production experienced no substantial decline in 2022 compared to 2021. > [...] > Contrary to industry narratives, the increase in the price of eggs has not been an “Act of God” — it has been simple profiteering. For the 26-week period ending on November 26, 2022, Cal-Maine reported a ten-fold year-over-year increase in gross profits — from $50.392 million to $535.339 million — and a five-fold increase in its gross margins. Notably, Cal-Maine’s gross profits increased in lockstep with rising egg prices through every quarter of the year — going from nearly $92 million in the quarter ending on February 26, 2022, to approximately $195 million in the quarter ending on May 28, 2022, to more than $217 million in the quarter ending on August 27, 2022, to just under $318 million in the quarter ending on November 26, 2022. The company’s gross margins likewise increased steadily, from a little over 19 percent in the first quarter of 2022 (a 45 percent year-over-year increase) to nearly 40 percent in the last quarter of 2022 (a 345 percent year-over-year increase).