Price of eggs and poultry goes up

[NewsWhore]

Colmados and supermarkets in Santo Domingo are selling eggs and poultry at higher prices. Eggs were at five and six pesos and poultry was selling for between RD$45 and RD$60 a pound. These high prices are due to shortages and speculation by intermediaries. Last year there was a serious egg production crisis and several producers went under, and the result is the current shortage, which is accentuated during Lent, when consumption increases. Diario Libre reports that the problem will be resolved within the next two months by increasing the age of the layers, according to the president of the National Association of Egg Producers (Asohuevos), Manuel Escano. "If you walk the streets, you will find very few old layers for sale since they are forced to produce for more than 100 weeks in order to supply a small part of the deficiency in the production that resulted from 2008," says Escano. The country consumes 125,000,000 eggs per month, but when Haiti banned imports of all Dominican egg and poultry products, the egg producers re-programmed their egg-laying facilities for internal consumption, but now the reality has hit the Haitians in the face, and they have been forced to acquire eggs from the Dominican Republic. Escano said that Haitians consume about 30 million eggs a month so Dominican production would have to exceed 150 million per month in order to fulfill this demand. There is currently a 10-million egg deficit that producers are trying to resolve by keeping the hens laying for longer periods. Moreover, steps are being taken to get the producers that left the market last year to return to production. The hope is that within two months production will reach last year's levels with more than 150 million per month. At least 30 egg producers have been out of production since last year. As of just a few weeks ago, that number was closer to 50, but some have returned to production. Escano said that the producers expect to satisfy demand and the prices should go down a little on the local market. The Dominican Republic has 300 registered egg producers.

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