Cage-Free Large White Falls to 95 Cents, Premium Inverts to Minus 9.4 Cents

The national conventional large white benchmark (USDA) stands at 104 cents a dozen as of August 4. Against that, the national cage-free large white loose series fell to 95.0 cents, down 31.8% on the week from 139 cents, leaving cage-free priced 9.4 cents below conventional. No attributed driver for the cage-free move appears in the USDA data this week.

• California cage-free large white loose, 140 cents (USDA): up 17.5% week over week from 119 cents, moving sharply opposite the national cage-free print.
• Medium white cage-free national loose, 40.0 cents: up 14.3% week over week from 35.0 cents.
• New York large white delivered store door, 148 cents: up 2.1% on the week from 145 cents. Extra large white at 150 cents, up 2.0% from 147 cents.
• Northwest conventional shell egg inventory, 62.7 thousand cases (USDA): 18% below the 5-year median, the furthest below normal in the digest, despite a 17.9% rise in cases on the week.
• Northeast inventory, 223 thousand cases: 19% above the 5-year median, up 8.9% on the week. Midwest at 532 thousand cases, 9% above its 5-year median.

Supply: US shell egg inventory totaled 1,454 thousand cases as of August 3 (USDA), 1.7% above the trailing 4-week average. A 1.2 million-hen layer flock in Utah was confirmed infected on July 6, per APHIS. No additional egg-sector detections appear in the APHIS 60-day record.

Retail: 602 stores featured national large white (12-count) at $1.23 the week of July 27, per USDA.

Data note: 58 California series have not updated in more than two weeks. The California cage-free large white at 140 cents reflects a current week-over-week reading; other California-specific series should be treated as stale.