Costs and Efficiency of Egg Marketing by Virginia Producer-Processors

This study focuses on the average costs associated with cleaning, candling, sizing, packing, and delivering eggs to market outlets by 38 commercial egg producer-processors with laying flocks from 5,000 to 50,000 birds. Average total unit costs for in-plant processing, for packaging supplies, and for delivery were determined by size of firm and by type of processing equipment. The relative importance of various cost items was also determined. The unit cost of handling eggs varied widely among firms because of differences in size of operation, the type of equipment used, the utilization of plant capacity, the cost per hour for labor and management, and the truck distance traveled per unit in distribution. Size of operation was found to be closely related to productivity per man-hour and total marketing cost per case. The major cost advantage of the largest plants was associated with greater productivity in the transferring function, in the cleaning-candling-sizing operations, and in delivery. With labor and management costs accounting for nearly 80% of processing costs, attention directed to improving labor productivity would appear to be most appropriate. Keywords: Eggs, Marketing, Cost, Processing, Virgini