CCTV News: Come and pay attention to the latest changes in the egg market. The latest data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs shows that since March, the national egg price has shown a continuous decline and has been declining for five consecutive weeks. What are the specific reasons? Let’s see the reporter’s investigation in Shandong, a major egg production province.

This laying hen farm in Pingyuan County, Dezhou City, Shandong Province produces 180,000 eggs a day, mainly sold to major supermarkets in Shandong and Beijing. Hou Li, the person in charge, told reporters that since the Spring Festival, sales volume has dropped by 20%, and the cumulative price of eggs has dropped by about 30%.

Hou Li told reporters that at present, the laying hen stock in her farm is 200,000, which is at a high level in the same period in history. The number of laying hens in some breeding enterprises in Dezhou, Shandong has also increased to the highest level in the past three years. This is mainly due to the relatively high egg price in the second half of last year, and farmers actively restocking, resulting in the continuous increase in laying hen stocks.

According to monitoring by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, in March, the national wholesale price of eggs was 8.33 yuan per kilogram, a month-on-month decrease of 5.56% and a year-on-year decrease of 2.12%.

Shandong: Laying hen breeding has dropped below the break-even line, and farmers have reduced costs and increased efficiency to resist risks.

The reporter learned in the interview that egg prices have continued to fall, but the cost of breeding has increased. Laying hen breeding has dropped from last year's profit level to below the break-even line, and many farmers are resisting market risks by reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

In Yangxin County, Binzhou, Shandong, Wang Guoming's laying hen farm currently has 170,000 laying hens and produces 140,000 eggs a day. He told reporters that since March, while the price of eggs has dropped, the prices of corn and soybean meal have risen, resulting in the increase in the feed cost per kilogram of eggs by 0.02 yuan compared with last month, and laying hen breeding has dropped below the break-even line.

In the face of phased losses, some laying hen breeding companies in Binzhou, Shandong rely on the advantages of local corn production areas to purchase high-quality corn to reduce feed costs, and on the other hand, they work hard to strengthen epidemic prevention and control and refined management, optimize the breeding process, and improve the egg production rate.

In addition, some farms also reduce costs and increase efficiency by cultivating laying hens themselves. This year, Ding Yubo's farm raised 120,000 young chickens, which not only saved costs, but also made profits from selling young chickens to the outside world.

The national laying hen stock has increased for three consecutive months, and farmers have accelerated the elimination of low-yield chickens

So, how will the trend of egg prices develop in the later period? Let’s listen to the latest experts’ analysis.

According to monitoring by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, in the first week of April, the national egg price fell by 1.1% month-on-month and 5.5% year-on-year.

Zhu Ning, associate researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said: "The main reason is that the number of newly-launded laying hens has increased. The national number of laying hens on the laying hens has reached 1.13 billion, a three-month increase, with a cumulative increase of about 3%.

Experts said that in the future, the scale of laying hens will still be at a high level. However, due to the recent phased losses in laying hen farming, the elimination of old chickens by some breeding farmers is accelerating.

Experts introduced that as the elimination of old chickens increases, hedging some new production capacity, the egg market will accelerate its return to supply and demand adaptation.

Zhu Ning said: "In the later stage, the May Day stocking will increase the price of eggs, but the supply of the egg market is relatively abundant, and the possibility of egg prices continuing to rise is not high."