Remarkably high consumer prices for eggs |
18/06/2018 |
Consumer prices for eggs remained stable the past months and are 18% above last year's level. The large difference is remarkable because the farm-gate prices for eggs decreased considerably in the first months of 2018. After the Fipronil crisis, production levels on the farms that had been affected were back to normal and nearly all farms were fully operational again. The index of farm-gate prices dropped from 174 points in December 2017 to 108 in April 2018 (2015=100). The producer prices also dropped in the same period. The question is if and when supermarkets will adjust the store prices to the lower purchase prices. In the first four months of 2018 the consumer prices for pork decreased by 3%. The price for potatoes decreased by about 2% in the same period, resulting in 10% lower consumer prices compared with last year. The other consumer prices - bread, eggs, dairy, beef and poultry - remained stable the past months. Dairy prices were 5% higher in April than in the previous year. These are some of the results of the Food Price Monitor of Wageningen Economic Research and Statistics Netherlands, which monitors the prices of a number of products in three links of the chain: consumer price (CPI), producer price (PPI) and farm-gate price (API). The PPI reflects the prices at which supermarkets buy their produce. The information is quantified and updated monthly and this time a four-month period is explained. |