Another wave of supply chain issues

The price of eggs is sixty percent higher now than it was this time last year. Hitendra Chaturvedi, professor at ASU’s W.P. Carey School of Business, joins Ted to talk about the supply chain issues currently impacting prices.

“Eggs is a very interesting produce these days,” Chaturvedi said. “The avian flu, the bird flu, which is causing the farmers to call over 50 million birds, and that has decreased the production by close to eight percent.”

It would take approximately six months for the chicken flock to recover and return to normal production, according to Chaturvedi. However, other factors like increases in the price of gas and cost of feed are impacting current egg prices.

While eggs saw a large increase in price, other food products like bacon saw a decrease.

“The food prices this month, November to December, increased just 0.3%, Which is the lowest since March of 2021,” said Chaturvedi. “There are certain products that are seeing high price increases.”

Many people are buying fewer products or substituting cheaper items to ease costs. As Chaturvedi points out, this decrease in demand will help fix some supply chain issues and lessen inflation.

“Based on the research we have done, we’re looking at the price increase, the inflation, would hopefully by the middle of this year, start to tame a little bit, and that is purely driven by reduced demand,” said Chaturvedi.