Kolkata: High egg prices lay bare wholesale-retail gap

KOLKATA: Despite a dip in egg prices in Kolkata’s wholesale markets in the last 15 days, retail prices across the city have refused to come down. Although supply from major egg producing states to the city have been adequate, wholesalers claimed that egg prices have never been so high at this time of the year.


At the Sealdah wholesale market, eggs were being sold at Rs 4.14 per piece on Tuesday, while retail markets charged Rs 6. Although the retailers blamed the wholesale markets, traders in Sealdah said egg prices had come down by at least by 50p per piece in the last 15 days.


“Egg prices had gone up in February due to a sudden shortage in supply. This was a result of unusual increase in demand in north India. We sold eggs at Rs 6-Rs6.5 per piece in February. It is yet to come down,” said Lakshman Pradhan, an egg retailer from Gariahat market.

“Moreover, supplies dip during Pongal every year as the poultry in southern India go for culling during that period. That aggravated the shortage this year and prices in the wholesale markets went up,” said Sumit Deb, a wholesale trader at the Sealdah market. According to Kajal Dutta, secretary of Kolkata Egg Merchants’ Association, wholesale egg price has now come down to Rs 4.14 per piece from Rs 4.82 in February. “The retail price should be maximum Rs 5.5 per piece. Anything beyond that is unacceptable,” Datta Said.

Gulam Mustafa Sheikh, a retailer at New Market, said eggs have not been priced so high during March in the last few years. “Prices have been high since last December and that is usual. Normally, prices dip in the middle of January. But this year, prices have refused to come down,” he said.

Chitta Mandal, a retailer from Lake Market, said, “Wholesale egg prices are coming down steadily and we hope that will have an impact on the retail markets over the next seven days.”