OREANDA-NEWS  The cost of eggs in stores decreases following the producer's selling price, and online retail has little effect on it, chairman of the presidium of the Association of Retail Companies (ACORT) told RIA Novosti Stanislav Bogdanov.

In the first week of July, egg prices continued to decline - they fell by 2.3% in the reporting week after falling by 1.6% a week earlier. According to the Ministry of Economic Development, egg prices in Russia fell by 6% in June compared with May. In the first week of July, by another 2.3%.

"Retail prices decrease following the selling price of producers - the cost of eggs is dictated by supply and demand, not by online retail. For retail, egg is a traffic-generating category in which retail prices differ little from purchase prices," Bogdanov said.

He noted that chicken eggs have been getting cheaper since the beginning of the year, and on average retail and purchase prices in retail chains have decreased by more than 30% on average. "The average cost of the most affordable chicken egg in federal retail now stands at 67 rubles per dozen, compared to 99 rubles in January. In some retail chains, the cost of an egg starts from 35-40 rubles per dozen," Bogdanov added.

Dmitry Vostrikov, executive director of the Rusprodsoyuz association, added in an interview with the agency that as of July 6, average retail prices in Russia amounted to 88 rubles per dozen against 120 rubles per dozen at the beginning of the year.

"As we remember, the key reason for the past serious increase in egg prices was the fact that for a long time the networks forced poultry farmers to sell eggs below cost, pushing poultry farms into stock market auctions to lower the price. If this situation repeats, it will not lead to anything good," Vostrikov added.
He noted that in order to stabilize egg prices, poultry farmers must understand that their business will not be unprofitable.