Rising egg prices mainly due to rise in temperatures
By Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 07 June 2007 2204 hrs

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SINGAPORE: Egg prices have risen for the second time this week, but industry players say the recent bird flu outbreak in Malaysia's Selangor state is not the main reason.

Each egg now costs one cent more, and suppliers here blame it on the weather.

Rising temperatures have affected the supply of chicken feed, they say, and hens are laying fewer eggs.

All these mean higher costs for suppliers, part of which has been passed down to the consumer.

Eggs now cost between 17 cents and 18 cents each.

Singaporeans consume 3.6 million eggs a day, of which 70 per cent are imported from Malaysia.

But eggs from Selangor take up only six to seven per cent of the local market, so the Eggs Import Association feels the impact of the ban on prices here is not severe.

A bigger worry, it says, would be an outbreak in Malacca, where Singapore gets some 60 per cent of its eggs. - CNA/yy