WattAgNet: Increases in egg prices and decreases in egg supply are not expected in Armenia, says the head of the Union of Poultry Raisers.

From WATTAgNet:

Armenia will not experience any egg shortages or changes in prices for eggs, said Sergey Stepanyan, head of the Union of Poultry Raisers.

Stepanyan addressed those concerns during a November 5 press conference as consumers had noticed a jump in egg prices. However, Stepanyan said the price increase seen in stores is because the weights and diameters of eggs were larger in October and the actual product price had not truly increased.

Information from ArmStat showed that egg prices actually dropped 3.9 percent year-over-year in October, but increased 6.4 percent when compared to prices in September.

The matter of an apparent shortage of eggs in Armenian stores was also addressed at the press conference. Stepanyan said consumers shouldn’t jump to conclusions about the country’s egg production, based simply off of the supply in stores.

“If there are no eggs in one or two shops out of 10, it doesn’t mean there is a deficit on the country level,” Stepanyan said, indicating that there could be other factors such as technical problems at certain stores.

According to Armenia’s ministry of agriculture, 543 million eggs were produced in the country during the first nine months of 2014, which is a 3 percent increase when compared to the same period of 2013. The ministry further projects that the country’s egg production will reach between 630 and 640 eggs in 2014, which would be as much as a five-percent year-over-year increase.

Andrea Gantz