Egg Marketing Systems and Practices 

 In New England 



Edwin T. Bardwell, Robert L. Christensen 

 and David A. Storey* 



INTRODUCTION 



Background 



Egg production was the second most important agricultural industry 

 in New England. In 1965, New England farmers produced 7.8 million 

 cases of eggs, with a farm value of 109.7 million dollars. 1 However, eggs 

 were even more important as a consumption item than as a production 

 item in New England. If the slightly over 11 million residents of New Eng- 

 land consumed eggs at the national average rate of 278 shell eggs per 

 capita, then about 8.6 million cases of shell eggs were consumed in 

 New England in 1965. 2 Thus, New England could be classified as a 

 deficit area, which included some surplus states, in the production of 

 eggs for consumer use. 



As eggs moved from producer to consumer, the marketing functions 

 were performed by several different kinds of firms. Important physical 

 functions included transportation, storage and processing (washing, 

 sizing, candling and packing into consumer cartons or loose into cases). 

 Other marketing functions included pricing to producers and on inter- 

 firm transfers, terms of payment and product specifications. Marketing 

 functions may be performed at the farm, by an intermediary firm, by 

 the final retailer, or in part by several of the above types of firms. 



Although a number of egg marketing systems exist, there should be 

 an optimum system or combination of systems to service any given 

 market. The Northeast Poultry Marketing Technical Committee (NEM - 

 21), a cooperative research group representing the Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Stations in the Northeastern United States, had as a research 

 objective: "To evaluate the economic feasibility of alternative egg 

 marketing systems in the Northeast and the extent to which they (a) 

 meet the requirements of various markets and (b) affect the competitive 

 conditions of the marketing firms, both individually and collectively. 



* Mr. Bardwell is Cooperative Agent, New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment 

 Station and Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture 

 stationed at the University of New Hampshire. Mr. Christensen is Assistant Pro- 

 fessor of Resource Economics, University of New Hampshire. Mr. Storey is Associ- 

 ate Professor of Agricultural and Food Economics, University of Massachusetts. 



1 Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Selected 

 Statistical Series for Poultry and Eggs through 1965, ERS 232, Revised May 1966, p. 6 



- Ibid., p. 20. This does not include consumption of processed eggs. The national 

 average per capita consumption of processed eggs in 1965 was 30 shell egg eauivalents. 



