Ecuador egg prices ease after months of gains

At the farm level, the decline was sharper. In Ecuador’s central highlands, the producer price for large eggs slipped to USD 3.36 a bucket from USD 3.90 in late September, while medium eggs fell to USD 3.22 from USD 3.80 and small eggs to USD 3.09 from USD 3.60, according to the public agricultural information system. That amounts to cuts of roughly 14% to 16% in two weeks.

The retreat follows a run-up that had taken prices to September highs after a period of tighter supply. Late last year, oversupply had driven prices down so far that farmers cut the laying flock by an estimated 3 million to 4 million birds, reducing the national inventory to about 14 million to 15 million layers, said Luis Poaquiza, coordinator of the Tungurahua poultry cluster. Those cuts helped support a recovery from March, but the market has since become more volatile as new flocks entered production and cheaper small eggs weighed on the broader market.

For producers, the current decline is a mixed outcome. It improves affordability and may help stabilize demand after prices rose to levels that discouraged purchases, but margins remain squeezed by higher feed and logistics costs. Poaquiza said farmgate prices in the first half of October, at roughly USD 3.20 to USD 3.30 a bucket, were still enough to keep operations running, though profits were limited.

The key investor takeaway is that the egg market remains supply-led and fragile. When feed costs rise, birds are culled; when supply tightens, prices rebound; when production normalizes, prices slide again. That makes the sector sensitive not just to consumer demand, but to maize, soy and transport costs, as well as cross-border leakage to Peru. For households, the immediate implication is relief at the checkout. For poultry producers, the risk is that another round of price weakness could quickly erode cash flow if input costs do not ease.