How much are consumers willing to pay for a dozen organic shell eggs? According to AEDE Assistant Professor Steven Vickner’s research, the answer is $4.27 per dozen, or $0.36 per egg. Vickner’s research, which examines the price premiums and marketing margins of organic shell eggs compared to conventional eggs, was recently profiled in the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association’s (OEFFA) Summer 2012 Newsletter.
As Vickner outlines in the article, the shell egg industry is an important agricultural sector in the U.S. with organic shell eggs gaining more and more of the market share – the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA ERS) reported that between 1997 and 2007, sales of organic shell eggs grew by an average of nearly 20 percent per year. Based on his research, in the article Vickner notes, “For farmers, organic eggs maintain a much higher and noticeably less variable marketing margin compared to conventional eggs.” Read the OEFFA newsletter here.