Egg prices in India: what moves them, from feed costs to the seasons
Who sets the daily egg rate, why it is per 100 eggs, how seasons, flocks and feed (maize and soybean) move it, the cheapest and dearest markets, and how the NECC rate turns into the shop price, with live figures.
What this guide covers
Egg prices in India change almost every day, and they differ from city to city. This guide explains where the daily egg rate comes from, why it is quoted for 100 eggs, what pushes it up and down through the year, how much of it is the cost of feed, and how the farm price turns into the price you pay at a shop, with live figures from NECC's daily rates and from the mandi prices of maize and soyabean, the two main feed crops.
Who sets the daily egg rate
The National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC), an association of poultry farmers formed in 1982, publishes a suggested price for 100 eggs every day for its zones across India: Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Namakkal, Barwala, Mumbai, Kolkata and many more. For some other centres it publishes the price prevailing there. These are wholesale prices between farms and traders. NECC itself says its prices are suggestive, not mandatory; we show its clarification on every egg page.
Why the rate is for 100 eggs
Eggs move from farms to traders in bulk: trays of 30 and cartons (peti) of 210. Quoting the price of 100 eggs keeps the arithmetic simple. One egg costs the 100-egg price divided by 100; a tray is 30 times that, a dozen 12 times and a peti 210 times. Our egg pages do these conversions for every market.
What moves egg prices
Demand is seasonal. Eggs sell more in the cooler months, so prices usually climb from autumn into December and January. Demand dips in the hot summer months and during periods when many families avoid eggs for religious reasons, such as the Shravan month in parts of north and west India, and prices tend to ease then.
Supply moves more slowly. A commercial hen starts laying at about five months old and is kept for roughly a year of laying, so flock sizes cannot change overnight. Heat waves reduce laying; disease outbreaks such as bird flu can hit both supply and demand at once. Transport links matter too: markets near the big producing belts (Namakkal in Tamil Nadu, the Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, Barwala in Haryana) are usually cheaper than markets that bring eggs from far away, such as Kolkata or the north-east.
Feed: the biggest cost behind every egg
Feed is the largest single cost of producing an egg, and its main ingredients are maize (energy) and soybean meal (protein). When maize and soyabean become dearer, farm margins shrink, and over the following weeks and months that pressure tends to show up in egg prices, especially if farmers reduce flocks. When feed is cheap and flocks grow, eggs can stay cheap for a long time. Feed is not the only factor, so egg prices and feed prices do not move in step week by week.
The latest egg rates
On 14 Oct 2026 the average NECC rate across its main markets was ₹5.77 per egg, ₹173 a tray of 30. Every city's rate, with a 30-day table and charts back to 2009, is on our egg rate pages.
Cheapest and dearest markets
On the same day, the cheapest NECC markets were Ajmer (₹5.30), Barwala (₹5.30), Ludhiana (₹5.38), Hospet (₹5.40), Hyderabad (₹5.45), and the dearest Kolkata (₹6.55), Mysuru (₹6.25), Brahmapur (Berhampur) (₹6.15), Chennai (₹6.15), Vijayawada (₹6.10). Each zone's rate follows its own local supply and demand, so the order changes from week to week.
Cheaper and dearer months for eggs
Across 17 full years of NECC rates (2009-2025), eggs have usually been cheapest in April and dearest in December. The table shows how far each month's average has typically been above or below its year's average.
| Month | Usual gap to the year's average |
|---|---|
| January | +5.0% |
| February | -4.9% |
| March | -12.2% |
| April | -17.3% |
| May | -6.8% |
| June | +4.6% |
| July | +0.3% |
| August | -5.8% |
| September | +1.6% |
| October | +4.7% |
| November | +14.5% |
| December | +16.0% |
Feed prices in the mandis
The table shows the weekly median mandi price of the two main feed crops over the last eight weeks, from the same Agmarknet data as our mandi pages. Rising feed prices squeeze poultry farmers before they reach egg prices.
| Week ending | Maize | Soyabean |
|---|---|---|
| 11 Oct 2026 | ₹2,250 per quintal | ₹6,051 per quintal |
| 4 Oct 2026 | ₹2,250 per quintal | ₹5,500 per quintal |
| 27 Sep 2026 | ₹2,300 per quintal | ₹5,435 per quintal |
| 20 Sep 2026 | ₹2,322 per quintal | ₹5,700 per quintal |
| 13 Sep 2026 | ₹2,360 per quintal | ₹5,740 per quintal |
| 6 Sep 2026 | ₹2,337 per quintal | ₹5,770 per quintal |
| 30 Aug 2026 | ₹2,350 per quintal | ₹5,800 per quintal |
| 23 Aug 2026 | ₹2,302 per quintal | ₹6,275 per quintal |
Egg rates in Hyderabad and the Telugu states
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are among India's biggest egg-producing states, with large layer farms in the Godavari districts, around Vijayawada and Chittoor, and around Hyderabad. NECC publishes separate rates for Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and other centres in the two states, and eggs from these farms travel to markets across south and east India. The zones do not always move together: on the same day Hyderabad can be among the cheapest NECC markets while Vijayawada is among the dearer ones, or the other way round. Each city page lists the nearby markets for comparison.
From farm rate to shop price
The NECC rate is the starting point. Traders add transport, handling and breakage, and shops add their own margin, so a single egg in a shop usually costs somewhat more than the NECC rate, more so in small shops and in places far from the producing belts, while a tray usually works out a little cheaper per egg than loose eggs. Branded eggs, brown eggs and special eggs (for example with added omega-3) follow their own prices.
How to read our egg pages
Each city page shows the latest NECC rate per egg, per tray, per dozen, per 100 and per peti, the change since the previous day, a week, a month and a year earlier, a 30-day table, charts back to 2009 and the months that are usually cheapest and dearest. If NECC has not published today's rate yet, we show the previous one with its date and never label an old price as today's.
Common questions
Is the NECC rate the price I should pay at a shop? No. It is a suggested wholesale price for traders buying from farms. Shops add transport, breakage and their own margin, so expect to pay more, especially for loose eggs.
Why is the rate different in every city? Each NECC zone reflects local supply and demand and the distance from the farms that supply it, so cities far from the producing belts, such as Kolkata, usually pay more.
Why did the rate change today? NECC revises its rates as market conditions change, often daily. Our pages show the change from the previous day, a week, a month and a year earlier, so you can see whether a move is unusual.
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