Local eggs scarcer on the market

LATEST MARKET PRICES

For seven months, Ismail Kagolo, a baker, has found it very costly to purchase one of his main baking ingredients, eggs.

Kagolo, who shops at Nakasero Market, has noted that a tray of exotic eggs that was once at sh8,500 has now shot to sh9,500.

And a tray of local eggs that cost sh18, 000 some seven months back is now between sh23,000 and sh25,000.

"The farmer from whom I usually buy the eggs attributed the hike in prices to the increased cost of drugs and feeds for the birds," he tells me.

At Container Village, a kilogram of mixed feed comprising of maize, soya and  a concentrate  rose from sh2,300 to sh2,800 while most chicken drugs range between sh20,000 and 25,000.

The change in price is also evident at Kibuye, Owino and Kalerwe markets.

In upscale supermarkets, a tray of exotic eggs is at sh10,000 while a set of six local eggs costs sh4,800.

For small-scale buyers, some kiosks are selling three exotic eggs at sh1,000 and others two for the same price and when it comes to local eggs, each is at sh800.

Sylvia Nagadya, a trader at Nakasero Market, says although local eggs are smaller in size, they are more expensive than the exotic ones due to their high nutrition value.

Sometimes referred to as yellow-yorked eggs, local eggs are scarcer on the market than the exotic ones due to the fact that the local chicken breed takes a long period of time to mature, according to Nagadya.

Isaac Magola, a farmer in Mukono, says, "The exotic breed of chicken takes four to five weeks to mature whereas the local breed takes four to five months."