Egg crisis hits Kampala: Soaring prices force bakers, street vendors into ‘shrinkflation’

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The supply shortage in eggs is severely impacting commercial and bulk buyers across the capital.

At 6:30am in Kireka, Margaret Samoka is already at work inside her bakery, Maggie Cakes. A glass display of sample designs is polished, a branded price list hangs on the wall, and two assistants in aprons line up baking tins for the day’s orders. The scent of vanilla fills the air, but inside the mixing bowl, business is no longer the same.Three months ago, Ms Samoka would crack 12 eggs for her standard batch of Shs50,000 cakes. Today, she cracks nine.

“I cannot increase the price of cakes. All I do is at least reduce on the size lately, reduce on the size of the cake, but don’t change the final price that I have been charging, which is fifty thousand. So I find myself in a tight corner to be able to remain with clients and still be able to do business,” Ms Samoka says.Her price list still reads Shs50,000 and the baking tin remains the same, but the mixture inside is noticeably less. It is a survival tactic now common among Kampala bakers, capturing the human face of an egg price surge that has swept from farm gates to supermarket shelves in just three months.

Rising feed, medication and chick costs are pushing egg prices higher, squeezing farmers, traders and consumers across the country

Traders at the Busia border district say they are charged an equivalent of Shs2,500 for every tray of eggs

The current standoff between the government and the feeds importers has caused delays at the border and the trucks are not moving

The ability to process fresh eggs into egg powder will reduce post-harvest losses and ensure stable market when the shelled eggs are in less demand, writes George Katongole

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