“I remembered the price of cage-free egg was 26 yuan/kg in the second half of the last year, but now the price goes for less than 20 yuan/kg. And the price of cage rearing chicken’s egg was even lower. My daughter is nursing a baby, so she needs to eat eggs. The declining egg prices reduced our living costs,” said by Mrs. Liu, a customer of Guoyuanlu market.
　　The prices of eggs have declined since the Spring Festival. The wholesale price now is 7 yuan/kg in urban area of Yichang while the cost is 7.8 yuan/kg. As a result, farmers will lose 0.8 yuan/kg in the buying and selling. “The price was lowest and rarely seen in the past five years,” said by Hu Bingbao, president of Yichang Minda Farming and Animal Husbandry Development Co., Ltd. There are 15,000 layers in Hu’s company and the egg production is over 140,000 per day. In the past, Hu regarded chicken farm as a treasure bowl. Although he has employed some workers to manage the farm, he would go around to supervising every day. But now he hasn’t been to his farm for two months because the scene will make him sad. “ Plus the costs of labor, I lose 7000 to 8000 yuan each day, I am not in the mood to go there.”　　
　　It is rare to see such a sharp price falling of eggs for over ten years. Hu said the prices of eggs differentiated every day for nearly two months with busts following booms and booms following busts. Some small raising households start to withdraw from the market. Yet large scale farms have no choice but to wait for the recovery.
　　According to the research, the main reason of price falling is an over-supply of eggs. From last May, the continuous surging price of eggs led many people rushing into the market and expanding the farm scale, which caused an over-supply of eggs featuring by the unceasing price falling since the spring. In addition, the egg consumption has entered a seasonal lull after Tomb-sweeping Day, because of the various choices of food.
　　According to the Municipal Price Bureau, the egg prices may stay low until May. Farmers will still suffer further losses.   (By Pei Shujing)