Many buyers wonder why a carton of brown eggs is more expensive than a carton of white eggs.
It’s not as you might assume. It’s not about one type being healthier, more natural, or finer than the other, but about the nuts and bolts of agricultural economics. Maintaining a brown egg-laying hen that is happy and properly nourished costs more.
“In terms of nutrition, a brown egg and a white egg are identical. It’s all about the breed of the chicken,” explained Daniel Brey, proprietor of Brey’s Egg Farm, a fourth-generation family egg farm in Jeffersonville, New York. The farm produces around 200,000 white eggs every day.
Some varieties, such as White Leghorn chickens, produce eggs with white shells, while others, such as Rhode Island Reds, lay brown shells. According to Brey, the price and flavor of the egg you buy—white or brown—are affected by what and how much the hen is given.
Why Do Brown Eggs Cost More Than White Eggs? Blame The Bird
“It has a lot to do with the chicken feed,” Brey told me. “It costs more to make a dozen brown eggs because the chickens that produce them tend to eat more.”
Edmund McNamara and his wife, Rose, own Sova Farms near Norwich, New York, approximately 200 miles north of New York City’s Central Park. Sova Farms, he added, is USDA-certified organic for brown eggs, chicken, pig, and lamb.
The farm now produces about 350 brown eggs daily but aims to increase that to over 1,000 after supplying over 700 pullets (or young hens) this month.
“All of our eggs are brown, but once in a while a chicken will lay a very light brown,” he added, adding that the eggs are sold directly to consumers in Westchester County, New York.
Brown eggs command a higher price in retailers, even only because of their unusual color.
“Eggs occur in a variety of colors, including white and brown. Some are even blue and green, depending on the breed,” said Joan Frank, assistant program director for dietetics at the University of California, Davis Department of Nutrition. Still, the nutritional content of eggs does not alter depending on the color of the shell, she noted.
Sova Farms is presently offering a dozen big brown eggs for $8. Organic pastured brown eggs can cost up to $10 per dozen, but ordinary brown eggs cost between $4.50 and $6 in most supermarkets.
According to the most recent weekly government data, a dozen white eggs cost around $2.50 in supermarkets, up from $1.50 a year ago.
Why Do Brown Eggs Cost More Than White Eggs? Blame The Bird
However, McNamara agreed that “there is really no nutritional difference between white and brown eggs.”
Phil Lempert, a supermarket business researcher and editor of SuperMarketGuru.com, assessed how much extra customers normally spend on brown eggs than white eggs. “If there’s brown eggs next to white eggs, typically you’re going to pay anywhere between 10% to 20% more for brown eggs, regardless of free range or organic,” he said.
David Anderson, a professor of agricultural economics (with a focus on livestock economics) at Texas A&M University, has researched egg prices and the factors that influence them on farms and in supermarkets.
Egg prices, regardless of shell color, typically respond to fluctuations in demand, he added. “You have short-term seasonal events, like Easter. We always have a high demand for eggs around the holidays. “In the fall, we see an increase in demand for eggs for holiday-related activities such as baking,” Anderson explained.
Other factors influencing egg costs include the cost of poultry feed. “Feed costs have been falling,” he said, which helps egg producers. We had a record crop in the United States last year, and maize and soybean meal prices are significantly lower right now.
Why Do Brown Eggs Cost More Than White Eggs? Blame The Bird
On the other hand, the recent epidemic of Bird Flu could keep egg prices higher than last year. Prices will rise if egg farmers cannot meet demand because they have had to slaughter their chicken populations due to bird flu.
Anderson confirmed that producing brown eggs cost more than typical white eggs. “If it costs more to produce they’ll probably be priced higher to the consumer.”
But what about the “perception” that brown eggs are healthier than white?
“It’s almost like, what comes first, the chicken or the egg?” Anderson stated. “Did the companies advertise that first or did it come from consumers who think that brown eggs just must be healthier?”
SOURCE – (CNN)
