That debate over the chicken or the egg is about to hit dinner tables.
New figures Monday from the Arizona Farm Bureau Federation show the bottom has dropped out of poultry prices. Boneless chicken breasts, which were selling for $3.24 a pound a year ago and spiked three months ago at $4.36, have now dropped to $2.48.
But the price of eggs, which had finally began dropping from high levels last year, is inching back up again, from $1.69 a dozen three months ago to $2.20 now. Still, that’s better than last year when the same carton cost more than $3.
So what’s going on?
As for the birds, it appears supplies that were decimated during the avian flu outbreak are finally back to where they were before, said Farm Bureau spokeswoman Julie Murphree. Millions of birds had to be destroyed.
So why hasn’t the price of eggs followed suit?
“A chicken that we raise for meat is completely different than a hen that we raise for laying eggs,” Murphree explained. “It’s two completely different commodity markets.”
But there’s something else. As with all products, price is based on not only supply but demand. And the demand for liquid eggs used by commercial operations increases this time of year as they start getting into the holiday baking season, Murphree said.
She pointed out, though, that the cost of the overall market basket of 16 typical items that the Farm Bureau prices is down, not only since the last quarter but over last year’s prices.
In fact, the $48.72 price tag is the lowest it’s been since the middle of 2013. And that’s without considering inflation.
Here, too, Murphree pointed to supply, and demand in particular.
“The global market, China, Russia, India, their demand in certain agricultural commodities continues to be soft,” she explained. “And we’re, as we say in the ag community, long on supplies.
“That’s why you’re seeing across the board this decrease in food prices, which is really good for you and I,” she said.
The quarterly survey is based on what Farm Bureau shoppers find at their local markets around the state, including any sales. It does not include additional savings that some grocers offer for using their “affinity cards.”
