How Jamaica Egg Farmers Association's 10% increase in Jamaican Eggs coming by May 2016

Bakers and housewives of Jamaica, it's that time of year again when yet another of my predictions has come to pass.

This time it's the pending increase in the price of eggs as reported on Thursday March 31st 2016 in the article “Brace For 10 Per Cent Increase In Egg Prices”, published Thursday March 31, 2016, The Jamaica Gleaner.

 

The pending increase of 10% was announced by President of the Jamaica Egg Farmers Association, Roy Baker. This is in keeping with my prediction that increasing demand for egg by Jamaican and Caribbean nationals would result in price increases after Christmas 2015 as noted in my blog article entitled “How the Drought of 2015 means higher prices for Jamaican Christmas 2015 and Easter 2016”. 

Already the President-elect of the Bakers' Association Winston Piper has scheduled a meeting with the bakers at the end of April 2016, as Cake bakers will be severely affected as pointed out in the article “Bakers' Association Concerned About Pending Increase In Egg Prices”, Published Thursday March 31, 2016, The Jamaica Gleaner.

The association has not yet given a date for the increase but expect it sometime in May 2016.

So what's the cause of this latest increase?

Jamaica Egg Farmers Association and the 10% increase in the price of Eggs - 75% of inputs to production are imported

President of the Jamaica Egg Farmers Association, Roy Baker claims that the prices have been fairly steady for the past 18 months.

This is because the Jamaica Broilers Group and Caribbean Broilers have supplied egg-laying pullets (chickens specifically for egg laying) to local Egg Farmers between May and June of 2015 to boost production as pointed out in my blog article entitled “Jamaica Egg Industry boost Production for Christmas 2015 - Why H5N2 Avian Flu in USA and Canada boosting Caribbean Christmas Market”.

Interestingly earlier in 2015, Jamaican was producing enough eggs to even export some to our Caribbean neighbours such as Barbados as noted in “Barbados Looks To Jamaica To Ease Egg Shortage”, published Thursday February 5, 2015, The Jamaica Gleaner. 

We've even broken into the Trinidad and Tobago market later in August 2015 as noted in “CB excess eggs break into TT market”, published Wednesday, August 12, 2015 by Steven Jackson, The Jamaica Observer.

However, the devaluation of the Jamaican dollar has made imported inputs such as corn and health products to maintain the egg laying pullets during their growing phase. The imported inputs account for 75% of the production of eggs from these pullets, hence the need for the increase.

Still, the predicted drought might be short lived as the MSJ (Meteorological Service of Jamaica) is expecting an easing of the drought as more rainfall is expected as the Hurricane season approaches as noted in the article “Weather Expert Says Drought Outlook Positive, Warns Against Complacency”, Published Friday April 1, 2016 by Jodi-Ann Gilpin, The Jamaica Gleaner.

Well, I guess It's back to eating kidney alone without Eggs as noted in my blog article entitled “Cooking at Easter at MICO - How to make a Kidney Egg Carrot Cheese Sandwich and Frozen Gum Bear Bag Juice”.

It'll be interesting to see if Jamaicans will accept this price increase to not only eggs over-the-counter but in all baked products that use eggs.