VOL. 18, NO. 4 / FALL 2023 / URNER BARRY'S REPORTER • 45
Egg powder prices behaved slightly
differently than liquids. Dried whole egg
and yolk prices strongly increased twice
and then stabilized, while dried egg white
moved a little every week, following a
bell shape curve, as if looking for the
right price. With tight supplies of eggs for
breaking last year and heavy electricity bills
due to the energy crisis, dried egg prices
reached levels never witnessed before.
This led the main buyers, like Japan, to
find more affordable options, including
other suppliers like India and Brazil, as
well as alternative ingredients in recipes
(soya protein for e.g.). Since then, without
the historically strong demand from Asia,
the powder market has been declining,
especially for the most valuable item-dried
egg white. At the end of November egg
white powder was averaging 20.50 €/kg in
the EU. It has been continuously declining
since then, standing at 13.00 €/kg mid-July
2023. This represents a drop of 36.6% in
since then. As a result, supplies became
fully adequate to ample, even more so that
the public holidays in May slowed down
the activity further.
In addition, on the supply side, since the
EU lifted quotas and duties on Ukrainian
industry eggs (an extra 0.15 €/kg on
export prices), Ukraine imports are often
mentioned by European market players as
a factor accentuating the drop in market
prices. As production costs in Ukraine are
lower than in the EU, Ukrainian sellers
enjoy a greater flexibility on prices, and
tend to present very competitive offers.
Data from Global Trade Tracker for industry
eggs and egg products shows EU import
volumes from Ukraine at 11,437 metric tons
from March to May 2023. This represents
just under 1,000 metric tons per week (50
trucks), and sources in the EU believe that
this quantity is significant enough to disrupt
market prices.
32 weeks. Yolk and whole egg powders
started a negative trend much later at the
end of May when the demand from all
countries contracted.
These extraordinary changes in the egg
product market over the last 12 months
illustrate its dependence on external
factors outside EU borders. Market
participants must undertake regular market
surveillance on sanitary safety, diseases
and vaccinations, grain world prices and
trades, demand from Asia, and of course
the impact of the war in Ukraine on the
market. As the market is influenced by
more and more issues outside buyers
and sellers' remits, anticipating demand,
production and price movements is
becoming more complex.
Article contributed by
Fabienne O'Donoghue
fodonoghue@urnerbarry.com