Poultry farms in Novosibirsk explained why the price of eggs is rising

Those who have recently been wondering what to invest in: currency, gold or any other assets - were probably very surprised by the rise in the rate... eggs . According to Rosstat, chicken eggs have risen in price by almost 20% since the beginning of the year. At the same time, the price continues to creep up, despite assurances from the authorities to stop and curb it. What was the real reason for the “egg inflation” and at what level the price of this essential commodity will freeze, NGS correspondent Ilya Kalinin found out.

New Year's egg super-profit

The price of chicken eggs is growing throughout 2023, but the growth has especially accelerated in the fall. Small-scale wholesale buyers with whom the NGS correspondent was able to communicate noted that the cost of a dozen eggs changes within a few days. For example, entrepreneur Mikhail buys eggs for his small trading pavilion either from wholesalers or from chain stores. He says he constantly monitors prices and chooses the lowest.

— I discovered this interesting point: three or four weeks before they started shouting about the rise in prices from every corner, the cheapest eggs in Novosibirsk turned out to be eggs in the Krasnoe&Beloe chain. There, our “Koltsovskaya” ( Poultry Farm “Novo-Baryshevskaya” - Ed.) category C1 were sold for 70 rubles per dozen. Then they disappeared, and then I found eggs through the “Ashanovsky” application for 73 rubles - these were already “Irtysh” eggs (Omsk poultry farm “Irtyshskoe” - Ed.). I bought several boxes in the evening, went to pick them up in the morning, and they [with a new order] are already more expensive. And now (as of November 15 - Ed.) I found the cheapest offer for only 83.36 rubles, and at Krasnoe & White a dozen C1 is already 94.90 rubles,” said Mikhail.

Another source, in a conversation with a journalist, assured that the hype around eggs is created artificially in order for sellers to extract excess profits.

— There is information that for the New Year, some businessmen want to create an artificial rush. Instead of increasing production, our traders decided to raise prices. The price for the wholesaler increases every week. For an ordinary buyer [in Novosibirsk], the price of an egg by mid-December will be about 140-145 rubles per dozen - that’s what the cheapest egg will cost,” said the source, who asked not to be named.

This person assured that he had information from several entrepreneurs who purchase eggs for the production of offal, pasta and salads. These people, they say, are already drawing up contracts where the wholesale price for eggs is 10 rubles per egg. Moreover, quite recently it was at the level of 7 rubles.

Kazakhs, Chinese and artificial eggs

A negative factor, according to one of the NGS sources, was rumors about the arrival of large wholesalers from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to the Novosibirsk region. They allegedly benefit from our eggs because of the high exchange rate. However, it was not possible to confirm this information: none of those with whom the NGS correspondent spoke had heard about the emergence of new major players in the market.

At the Novo-Baryshevskaya poultry farm, which is known for the Koltsovskoye Egg brand, the journalist was assured that they had not heard of such wholesalers. Moreover, as the HEAD of one of the divisions of the poultry farm said (he asked not to use his name), buyers from neighboring countries have been purchasing in the Omsk region for the last two months.

CJSC Poultry Farm "Novo-Baryshevskaya" was founded in March 2002. The DIRECTOR is Irina Podoyma, the wife of the general director of ZAO Oktyabrskaya Poultry Farm, deputy of the Novosibirsk Legislative Assembly Oleg Podoyma. Financial indicators at the end of 2022: revenue - 3.2 billion rubles, net profit - 521.1 million rubles. CJSC Novo-Baryshevskoye is a participant in government procurement with concluded contracts totaling 89.7 million rubles. The Novo-Baryshevskaya poultry farm is part of the Oktyabrsky agricultural holding together with the Posevninskaya, Kargatskaya and Oktyabrskaya poultry farms.

— Our holding simply does not have the required volume of eggs for buyers from these countries. We work with federal networks. There is another large producer - the Chik Poultry Farm. But, as I know, they are also in retail chains. The current situation is that all products are located in the region. We don’t even have the opportunity to ship eggs, for example, to Kemerovo, although they are asking from there,” admitted a poultry farm employee. Director

of Chikskaya Poultry Farm JSC Andrey Bil has also not heard of Asian wholesalers . “They would have approached us with an offer, but there was no such thing,” says the head of one of the largest poultry farms in the Novosibirsk region in a conversation with a journalist. JSC "Chikskaya Poultry Farm" was founded in October 2006. Director - Andrey Bil. According to the issuer, 100% of the shares at the end of 2015 belonged to Prodo LLC (owned by Andrey Gorodilov and Irina Panchenko). According to the Kontur.Focus system, the possible and only founder of the Chikskaya poultry farm may be NIFK LLC (the only owner is Dmitry Kadushin). Financial indicators at the end of 2022: revenue - 2 billion rubles, net profit - 117.5 million rubles. JSC Chikskaya Poultry Farm is a participant in government procurement with concluded contracts totaling 16.3 million rubles. A farmer from the Toguchinsky district, Valery Pyatkov, is sure that the shortage arose, among other things, due to the departure of suppliers who allegedly brought eggs from Belarus and CHINA .





. The farmer explains that due to rising transportation prices, this has become unprofitable, but the rise in egg prices will again bring back supplies from afar.

Some participants in the egg market also mentioned Chinese artificial eggs in a conversation with a journalist. Their existence has been discussed on the Internet for about ten years, but the mass production of counterfeits is still questioned.

At the Novo-Baryshevskaya poultry farm, the Chinese surrogate is called a rumor on the local market. The factory noticed that until recently they shipped large quantities to Mongolia, which also went to China . But we haven’t heard about importing eggs from China. The director of the Chikskaya poultry farm also does not believe in the presence of Chinese counterfeits on the local market: he believes that it is unprofitable to produce this kind of thing on an industrial scale due to the complex process.

Why the price is rising

Almost all experts cite economic factors as the reasons for the rise in egg prices in the region. The version with Kazakh-Kyrgyz wholesalers and Chinese counterfeits is not seriously considered by serious manufacturers.

Wholesaler Ivan, whose eggs are supplied to schools, kindergartens and catering outlets, explains the rise in price to a shortage of foreign veterinary drugs for chickens on the market.

— They are mostly foreign. And so both cardboard boxes and paper grids have become more expensive. A box containing fourteen grilles now costs more than a hundred rubles. Can you imagine? And the price of each grille is constantly growing,” Ivan noted. Farmer

Pyatkov also agrees with the real economic reasons . The price of the egg includes grain for the chickens, electricity, fuel, transportation costs, and labor costs. In small farms, he added, the cost of the product is higher, in large agricultural holdings it is lower. At the Novo-Baryshevskaya poultry farm, they did not name the specific cost of eggs, citing trade secrets, but still clarified the increase in prices for their products. — Compared to summer, our selling price for eggs has not changed by more than 8%. “I say this with confidence because we recently passed an antimonopoly audit,” the head of one of the divisions of the Novo-Baryshevskaya poultry farm told the journalist. According to him, the poultry farm cannot receive excess profits from possible speculative schemes, because they are bound by contracts and fixed prices with federal networks. And the natural increase in price is explained entirely by economic reasons. — After all, the price increases not only for logistics and packaging, some of which have an imported component. What about spare parts for sorting machines? What about imported vaccines, vitamins and everything else? “All this is for a euro,” says a poultry farm employee.









The head of the Chik poultry farm outlined in some detail all the factors influencing the increase in the cost of eggs. Andrey Bil began with seasonal fluctuations: the price of eggs rises from the beginning of autumn until the end of the year, then it freezes and rises again before Easter. But from the end of spring and throughout the summer, the dead season begins for poultry farms.

— Egg production is 900 thousand eggs daily. And you can’t stop feeding and serving the chicken. And the shelf life of eggs at a temperature of 18–20 degrees is 25 days. Summer is coming here: holidays, fruits , vegetables. And the guard is coming for us! All summer we have been trading at zero at best. If we take 2022, then for each summer month we personally received minus 30 million rubles, and for the entire 2022 our factory started working... Our profitability was approximately 2.5%. With such profitability, you can survive, but you won’t be able to invest in development. This is a road to nowhere,” Biel said categorically.

In addition to the increased cost of grain over the year - from 9 to 15 thousand rubles per ton, the increased foreign exchange price of protein feed - soybean meal, according to the head of the poultry farm, the high interest rate of the Central Bank personally affects the price of eggs. The development of production requires loans, which are only becoming more expensive.

Finally, all experts note another important reason for the rise in prices specifically for the Novosibirsk region: eggs from the Evsinskaya poultry farm disappeared from sale. The enterprise simply switched from eggs to raising broilers. According to various estimates, the Evsinskaya poultry farm occupied almost a third of the local market, producing more than a million eggs per day.

JSC Poultry Farm Evsinskaya was founded in March 2006. General Director - Igor Rudakov. The founders and shareholders are not disclosed. Financial indicators at the end of 2022: revenue - 2 billion rubles, net loss - 143.5 million rubles. Participant in government procurement with concluded contracts totaling 4.2 million rubles.

— We have Evsinskaya, and in the Volga region an entire poultry farm that produced two million eggs per day died: there was bird flu there . And all over the country some negatives have happened. And about two years ago, there was an overproduction of eggs in our country, some factories were operating at a negative rate and also closed,” an employee of the Novo-Baryshevskaya poultry farm explained the total egg shortage.

The NGS correspondent got through to the deputy general director of the Evsinskaya poultry farm, Kirill Tsarev, but he asked to send him questions by email. By the time of publication, no answers to questions had been received from Tsarev.

When egg inflation

will stop Experts make cautious forecasts about when egg prices will stop and at what level. Some explain it this way: they say that they previously predicted one price ceiling, but it was broken.

“I don’t even know how much the price can still rise.” We thought that 90 rubles was expensive, but it turned out to be inexpensive. The New Year has not yet arrived, but before the New Year there is always a surge,” notes wholesaler Ivan.

— The government’s fight against egg prices was not successful. Somewhere in the late 20s of October they talked about regulating price increases. About a month has passed, and the price has risen by an average of 10%,” grins businessman Mikhail.

— I don’t understand at what level the price will stop. We are communicating with different regions. Let's take the Novosibirsk region: here the price for a dozen on a store shelf is from 86 to 110 rubles. It's on C1. And from the Krasnoyarsk Territory to the Far East the price is 158–198 rubles per dozen. And if we look at Moscow or the central part of RUSSIA, then the shelf there starts from 170 rubles and does not even end at 200 rubles,” explained a source from the Novo-Baryshevskoye poultry farm.

In addition, experts note, price increases are also influenced by trading on the so-called egg exchanges. Andrey Bil explained that each federal trading network has a personal exchange. Each poultry farm can sell up to half of its products there - the part that is not shipped online at a fixed price.

— These exchanges were invented by the federal networks themselves; certain volumes are traded there weekly. Any supplier with whom the network has an agreement can enter the exchange. The network itself organizes the auction, declares the volume and at what price it is willing to buy the egg. So on the stock exchanges, the price increased significantly compared to the summer period, up to 50%,” said Andrei Bil. — We thought that the price of 100 rubles [for a dozen] was peak. But the price at this week’s auction reached 150 rubles. True, this is to a different region, and delivery is included here. I think this will be the limit figure. For factories, this is a comfortable price that gives a profitability of 20%. Today we have, I will reveal a military secret, the selling price for [Egg C1] is 100 rubles.

Biel added that their poultry farm reached normal profitability with November egg prices - within 20%. This allows the enterprise to develop normally, and not just survive, the head of the Chik poultry farm noted with satisfaction.