Chicken lays less egg in Lent? Understand – 03/27/2023 – Market

The egg is more expensive in Brazil. The high price has several reasons, but a peculiar one usually circulates at fairs: that hens lay fewer eggs during Lent.

The statement has some basis, which does not mean that the animals have entered a kind of religious recess. The explanation is actually quite earthly.

The biological process that leads chickens to produce eggs is triggered by light. As the days get shorter between December and June, the stimulus needed for hormone regulation decreases at this time of year, causing a drop or even interruption in egg production.

Daniela Duarte de Oliveira, a veterinarian and counselor at the Instituto Ovos Brasil, explains that chickens begin this process of lower production in the period that coincides with Lent — but points out that the relationship between the two phenomena is nothing more than a myth.

March and April mark the transition from summer to autumn, when the sun starts to rise later and set earlier. The reduction of the light stimulus would start to have some effect already at this time, with the apex occurring around June — the month that registers the shortest day of the year.

According to Oliveira, the lower egg production is more noticeable in free-range hens. This is because, in the industrial regime, the animals receive artificial light to simulate constant days, preventing egg production from being impaired.

“Not with free-range hens. Every part of hormonal regulation for egg production is triggered by a specific period of light. As the days are getting shorter, the stimulus decreases and the hens stop laying. When August arrives, in as the days begin to increase, they have the stimulus again”, he explains.

Some birds actually stop laying eggs, says Oliveira, but this varies from animal to animal, as well as from region to country. “In the Northeast, the days are constant and very bright. So the chickens there are less affected than in Minas Gerais and São Paulo, for example.”

Valdir Avila, a poultry researcher at Embrapa, recalls that the large production of eggs in Brazil is carried out in intensive systems.

In this model, the producer guarantees a daily average of 16 hours of light. If at a given time the day lasts 11 hours, for example, he adds another 5 hours of artificial light to keep production constant.

Due to these adjustments, the seasonal effect is practically zero for most of the Brazilian egg production.

The opposite occurs with free-range hens, mainly in those regions where the difference in day length is more marked.

Avila remembers that we entered the period of decreasing luminosity at the end of last year, when the longest day of the year was recorded, on December 21st.

Lent coincides with half of this period —which lasts until June—, which may explain the association that some people make between religious tradition and the lower supply of eggs.

Conjunctural factors can also help to understand the origin of this relationship. José Fernando Menten, head professor of poultry at Esalq (Luiz de Queiroz Higher School of Agriculture), points out that many people reduce or stop eating meat during Lent, replacing protein with eggs.

“People tend to buy more eggs and notice the price rise more easily, precisely at the time when they want to consume more”, he says.

According to Juliana Ferraz, an egg market analyst at Cepea (Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics), the product tends to be more expensive during Lent, a time when consumption traditionally increases.

However, she says that the decrease in supply is what is weighing most on the high prices this year.

“Part of this may be linked to the biological question of the birds”, he says. “But the main thing is that the producer has housed fewer birds. The cost of production has grown a lot in recent years, mainly in relation to nutrition, which is [feita a base de] corn and soy bran.”

In Bastos (SP), the main producing region in the state of São Paulo, the price of the extra white egg increased by 20.6%, from R$ 145.90 per box with 30 dozens in March 2022 to R$ 175 .97 in the same period this year.

For brown eggs, there was an increase of 22%, with the product going from R$ 165.69 a box to R$ 201.94.

In large consumer centers, such as Greater São Paulo, the box with 30 dozen egg whites was traded at R$ 151.85 in March 2022. This year, the product started to be sold for R$ 185.60, in average.