November 28, 2025
SARPANG – The country is facing the sharpest spike in egg prices in years, as a nationwide shortage and increasing demand push costs to record highs, squeezing both consumers and farmers.
A carton of eggs that sold for Nu 2,700 in July now fetches up to Nu 3,500, a jump of nearly 30 percent.
The shortage in supply and the consequent inflation in prices stem from lower production, linked to delayed restocking of day-old chicks (DOC) at input farms. Demand for eggs has also been driven by the “One-Child, One-Egg” nutritional programme for school children.
Nima Wangchuk Tamang, who runs one of the largest poultry farms in Shompangkha, Sarpang with 4,000 birds, said fewer hatching birds and many becoming spent have cut egg production in the last two months, which is driving prices.
San Bahadur Subba, a poultry farmer at Dargaythang, will phase out 1,500 spent hens over 26 months old, well beyond their productive laying period of 18 months. “Keeping them on the farm is a loss, especially when egg prices fall,” he said.
Dawa Singye Gomdhan, another poultry farmer in Norbugang, Shompangkha, said his egg production has fallen from 13 to nine cartons a day, which leaves only 2,400 layers after 1,600 birds became spent. “I have ordered 4,000 chicks from the government hatchery,” he added.
“The heat-stressed farm mortality rate has been very low compared with previous years, when a dozen layer chickens used to die daily on my farm,” he added.
The birds get heat stress when the temperature rises above 26 °C, despite the use of preventive measures such as water sprinklers on the roofs.
Unregulated middlemen
Another reason pushing up prices, according to poultry farmers, is the involvement of unregulated brokers, which is further inflating egg prices.
“The government needs to introduce appropriate pricing mechanisms and regulate middlemen to ensure long-term stability,” said a farmer. “As for us, we sell to whoever pays the most.”
Bikash Gurung, a poultry farmer at Chhoekhorling, Dekiling, collects eggs from highway farms and ships a pickup truck to Thimphu weekly. “Middlemen offer higher prices during shortages, and I have been receiving many orders from Thimphu,” he said.
“The farms also do not sell to us at lower prices and raise prices according to the market,” said Dilli Ram Waklay, a poultry farmer at Gosarling in Tsirang, who transports a DCM truckload of eggs to Thimphu each week.
A carton of seven trays costs Nu 2,900 to Nu 3,000 at the farms and sells for Nu 3,400 to Nu 3,500 in the Thimphu market, while a tray priced at Nu 430 to Nu 450 at the farms goes for Nu 480 to Nu 500 in the market. Dealers earn about 11 percent profit margin per tray and around 17 percent per carton.
“There are so many middlemen in a small business, even within the same community. We also buy from retailers, not directly from the farms,” said a shopkeeper in Gelephu.
The soaring prices are largely attributed to higher margins imposed by wholesalers, aggregators, and retailers.
Govt. interventions
While the government approved six private suppliers to import 120,000 Hy-Line Brown chicks from India, the importers were unable to do so due to a shortage at the source, as chicks from the major poultry hub of Tamil Nadu were being supplied to the Middle East.
The failed intervention was intended to ease the shortage and bring down soaring prices by September, after which Bhutan could even produce a surplus of 11.6 million eggs a month.
The National Poultry Development Centre (NPDC) in Sarpang, with regional farms at Lingmethang in Mongar and Paro, supplies DOCs at a government-subsidised rate to promote farm commercialisation. Chicks cost Nu 39 each for orders below 1,000 and Nu 45 for orders above 1,000.
While the farm in Paro has already started supplying DOCs in its region, the NPDC has received orders for about 78,000 chicks from central dzongkhags, including Tsirang, Sarpang, Dagana, Trongsa, and Zhemgang.
DOC placements will resume in December at the farm in Lingmethang, with egg production beginning by April–May 2026, which is expected to bring down prices.
Arjun Gurung, the officiating Programme Director of NPDC, said the three government input farms are working to meet DOC demand. “We are currently setting up a batch that will hatch in 21 days. Full-scale supply will resume by the second week of December,” he said.
There has been a supply gap of about two months, in September and October. In 2023, the NPDC resumed DOC placement in September after a year-long hiatus due to numerous challenges.
Arjun Gurung explained that the ongoing shortfall is due to DOC demand dropping between August and December 2024 after farms became oversaturated with the additional supply of over 120,000 chicks from private suppliers.
“Prices crashed to as low as Nu 1,000 per carton, which forced many farmers to sell their birds due to sustainability issues. This has created a supply vacuum,” he said.
Of the 565,411 female DOCs that could have been produced from 1.71 million hatching eggs, only 274,540 were hatched due to cancelled orders and non-lifting. This shortfall from last year is now showing up as reduced egg supply, a situation expected to worsen during the winter peak.
The current market price is equivalent to an all-time pandemic high of Nu 3,500 a carton and is likely to continue rising, as the winter demand surge may intensify the shortage.
Farmers, however, say egg prices will fall in winter after schools close, as demand from the school feeding programme halts.
Bhutan produced 121 million eggs in the financial year 2024–2025, falling 34 million short of the annual demand of 155 million due to under-lifting of DOCs.
Sarpang, Samtse, and Tsirang together account for 70 percent of egg production. in the country.