Egg Prices Soar, Layer Poultry Breeder Lament Supply-Demand Imbalance

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Layer Poultry Indonesia Breeders President Ki Musbar Mesdi said that the prices of eggs had increased significantly mainly due to the imbalance between high demands from consumers with breeders' inability to meet people's needs. 

"The current increase of egg prices is currently because the demands for egg consumption have returned to normal since the pandemic shifted to a Covid-19 endemic," said Mesdi to Tempo on Thursday, August 26, 2022.

According to Musbar, demands for eggs were previously at its lowest because the government helped roll out social assistance programs and supplied most people with daily staple goods, which included eggs. Despite the demand for eggs returning to normal, the population of layer poultry farms has not reached the levels of 2019. Musbar asserted that it would take three to four months for the industry to recover. 

According to Musbar, this condition occurs because during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially from 2020 until the end of 2021, farmers suffered massive product rejection. The reason behind the rejection was farmers were not strong enough to survive with low market demand. Consequently, the population of egg-laying hens was reduced by 30 percent at that time.

Then from August 8 to August 23, 2022, the government rolled out a social assistance program that made prices at the farmer level increase by 15 percent when supply was still lacking. "That's what makes egg prices from breeders reach a new equilibrium point at the level of Rp 22-24 per kilogram," Masbur said.

RIANI SANUSI PUTRI

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