WHY EGGS ARE CHEAP.

Shannon News, 24 September 1929, Page 3

WHY EGGS ARE CHEAP.

A SLUMP IN INCUBATOR BUSINESS. SHORT PERIOD OF EXPORT . COMMENCES. Poultry-keepers are at present undergoing one of their periods of marked depression, the wholesale prices of eggs having fallen to the extraordinarily low figures of Is Id to Is 2d a dozen. This position coincides with an unprecedented glut of fresh eggs. For the four weeks ended September 17th, the Levin Poultry Keepers' Association marketed 11.198, dozen, as compared With 8784 dozen* in the corresponding period last year and 6204 in the same period of 1927—the output thus showing increases of 2414 dozen and 4994 dozen, although the season is not yet anywhere near its flush. Put in another way, the production has risen by , over 1200 dozen a Aveek after two years. Similar growth in poultry-farm-ing is estimated to have taken place in most parts of, the Dominion where it is carried on as an industry, and as a corollary the demand for replenishment of flocks has fallen off, seriously affecting these breeders.who have specialised in the sale of day-old chicks. As a result, many thousands of eggs that would otherwise have been placed in the incubators have come on to the market.

Temporary relief from the congestion of egg supplies is afforded each year by export, but this is only carried on oyer a term of six weeks, when colonial consignments can compete with other eggs on the British autumn market. To assist the export scheme the Dominion Government offers a guarantee against a certain amount of loss, -and this guarantee expires about the middle of November. It is open to the producers to export at other times throughout the year, but the chances of doing so with profit appear to be small. The greatest difficulty" with which poultry-farmers are faced, of course, is the high coat of grain, and until relief can be obtained in this direction—a matter which has lately been urged on the Government—many of them will have to be content with a mere existence.

The first of this season's consignments of eggs for the Old Country left on Tuesday by the Rimutaka, which took 1500 cases of 30. dozen each, including 300 cases from the port o£ Wellington. The next shipment will be by the Rotorua, next week, when it is probable that 4500 cases will be consigned. In November, with the last of the season's shipments under the Government's subsidy-guarantee system, from 4000 to 4500 cases are likely to be sent away.