Eggs Have Started To Rise Sharply Again In Russia

A new crisis is hitting the country.

Following the "cucumber" inflation, which exceeded 100%, the Russian market seems to be facing a crisis in the egg market.

According to Rosstat, over the last week a dozen eggs on the shelves of stores and supermarkets became more expensive by 3.4% - a record among all food products in the statistics. Over the month eggs rose in price by 5.7%, and over six months - by 20%.

The situation in wholesale is much worse: in one month suppliers have raised prices by 80-100%, reports "Kommersant" with reference to eggpack data and sources in retail chains and poultry farms.

The possible egg crisis is the second for Russia in the last three years. In 2023, egg prices rose by almost 50%, in the regions they were sold by the piece and by passport, and to cover unexpected shortages the authorities turned to Iran and Turkey for help.

Eggs are "the most important source of protein for the low-income population," and their rise in price is "out of the normal seasonal trend," says Deputy Director of the Central Egg Market Research Center Dmitri Belousov. As more consumers go into savings mode, cutting back on meat purchases, demand for eggs is growing: in physical terms, their sales rose 9.9% year-on-year, and that's 5 times the overall growth for food (1.9%), according to NTech statistics. At the same time, retail sales of beef, for example, decreased by 6% in physical terms, and lamb - by 39%.

Egg has become the most important traffic-forming assortment item in stores in recent years: buyers more often visit those retail facilities where this product is cheaper, a representative of the poultry farms "Chikskaya" and "Chelyabinskaya" told "Kommersant".

The growth of egg production is slowing down, as poultry farms are adjusting their stock after the overproduction crisis of 2025, when prices fell below the cost of production, points out the expert on the agricultural market Albina Koryagina. The consequences of this are likely to become even more noticeable by the fall-winter of this year, she warns.

The growth of retail prices for eggs could be even higher, but retailers are restraining their cost on the shelf, fearing the claims of the authorities: now they on average buy eggs twice cheaper than they sell them, Kommersant sources say.

The upward trend in prices will last until producers' margins grow and they start increasing the number of hens again, which, in turn, will have an effect in five or six months, Koryagina warns. If egg inflation becomes too noticeable, the authorities may intervene in the process and increase imports, the expert adds.

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