Nsukka residents in Enugu have lamented the high cost of eggs. In separate interviews on Thursday, they expressed their views while reacting to the current market price of a crate of eggs, which goes for N5,000.

Stella Nduka, a housewife, said that her children have not been able to eat eggs for some time now because of the prohibitive price.

“The present situation, where one egg sells for N200 and a crate of eggs sells for N5,000, is worrisome. Before, I usually used eggs to cook noodles for my children, but now I can’t afford them because of their high cost.

“My customer in Ogige Market Nsukka says the fault is not with the sellers, as they sell according to how they buy from the poultry farms. My customer says presently, he buys a crate at N4,500 from the poultry farms and sells a crate at N5,000,” she said.

Jude Ugwuoke, who has a food joint at Aku Road, Nsukka, decried the high cost of eggs, which he said had adversely affected his business.

Mr Ugwuoke stated, “Before, I was preparing one packet of noodles with two eggs for my customers at N1,200, but because of the high cost of eggs, it is now N1,500. I am losing many customers because my customers are complaining that the N1,500 is too much, as only a few now patronise me.

“The government should intervene before my business closes. By January this year, the cost of an egg crate was between N2,000 and N2,200.”

Juliet Onah, who sells eggs with other food items in Ogige market Nsukka food section, said the sellers should not be blamed for the present hike in egg prices as they sell according to how they bought the commodity.

“I buy eggs from poultry farms.  I bought these eggs on Tuesday this week, and I bought a crate at the price of  N4,500 and resold at N5,000. You can see my gain is only N500 in spite of the transport I paid to go buy the eggs,” said Ms Onah.

She added, “In January this year, we sold an egg crate at N2,000  while the retailers sold one egg at N100. I don’t understand the type of inflation in this country.”

Ernest Ugwu, a poultry farmer, attributed the high price of eggs to the high prices of chicken feeds.

Mr Ugwu said the only way to lower the price of eggs was for the government to subsidise the ingredients used in producing feed.

“If a poultry farmer buys feed at a high price to grow the chickens that lay the eggs, they will sell the eggs to cover the production cost and make a little gain that will enable them to remain in business.

“No businessman or woman in the world would like to record losses rather than make a profit to remain in business,” added Mr Ugwu.

(NAN)