Estimating the costs of egg production at small, medium and commercial-scale layer farms in Malaysia

. A sudden price hike of eggs at the end of 2018 could be due to an increase in production costs. Understanding production costs is useful to the government to take necessary measures to prevent future price hikes. The objective of this study was to estimate the cost of egg production in poultry farms in Malaysia. A survey was conducted at 28 layer farms selected according to the production scale. 19.2% were small-scale layer farms, 31.2% mediumscale and 49.6% commercial-scale. The calculated cost of production of RM0.22 to RM0.36 per egg in West Malaysia was within the range recorded by the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS), and RM0.33 to RM0.40 per egg recorded in East Malaysia. The high production costs in East Malaysia was mostly due to higher feed prices and therefore, efforts should be undertaken to formulate cheaper poultry feed without compromising its quality in order to maintain the prices of egg in the future