Associate Professor Alejandro Plastina co-authored a new study for Iowa State University's Egg Industry Center. The study helps egg farmers compare industry costs with their own operational costs of processing (washing and weighing), putting eggs in cartons, and transporting eggs to market. The Egg Industry Center published special reports estimating the same costs for 2018, 2020 and 2021. The new report updates these estimates for 2022.

Some key findings from the study include:
-Most costs are higher than those estimated in the previous report for 2021.
-The largest difference with respect to the previous study is in the grade yield loss followed by the processing cost.
-The large price difference between large, medium, and small-size eggs in 2022 resulted in a much larger value for the estimated grade yield loss than in previous years.
-Cost line items with higher variability among survey respondents are probably where processors have most opportunities to reduce costs.

Read the press release here. The study can be read here.