Cost of Living Review: Eggs

Life in HK

 

Eggs are something that you definitely eat at least once a week. In a family where there are 2 kids, we would probably finish a dozen of it within a week or so. My kids are eggs lover. They can eat ’em in all sorts of form be it steamed, fried, scrambled, soft boil, hard boiled, poached except raw!! I recall once, my Cambo maid actually stir fry vegetables with eggs..OMG..speechless, but the kids ate it (=.=).

So lets look at affordability of eating eggs this week.

In Malaysia:
Since I’ve left for about a year, I’m not sure what’s the latest egg price, hence I did a google search and found about this official website (Federation of Livestock Farmer’s Association Malaysia – FLFAM) that puts the price of eggs sold in Malaysia in general. Are eggs controlled items in KL? Not very sure. Anyway, I got to know there are so many grades of eggs sold in KL. Ranging from AA up to F. F is priced at 0.00…broken egg LOL. Anyway, on an average, eggs cost RM0.35 cents. Pretty affordable. I definitely can afford to make egg sandwich for kids party :).

Does anyone knows if Malaysia sell imported eggs? What about Organic eggs, how much do they cost?

In Hong Kong:
It’s amazing how many types of eggs you can find here, all from different country. They don’t have grades, and comparing the sizes, they are more or less the same. I spent some time to copy down all the types of eggs sold at supermarket and here’s an overview of how much they cost:

Organic eggs: HKD71.90 (for half a dozen)
US eggs: HKD29.00 (for 2 trays of 14 eggs) – promotion
HK brand eggs: HKD28.00 (for a dozen) – weird, how come US eggs are cheaper than HK LOL
Thai eggs: HKD28.90 (for a dozen)
Korean eggs: HKD27.00 (for a tray of 10 eggs)
Japan eggs: HKD40.90 (for a tray of 10 eggs)

Makes me wonder why they are importing eggs from so many country? Further reading found that back in 2008, they started doing egg testing on all the eggs from China for fear of melamine content :|. This made the supply slower and the prices soared. Also here’s an article that mentioned that egg price rose 15% comparing 2009 and 2011.

As you can see here, US eggs are the cheapest. 2 trays for HKD29!! We will usually grab these. This only happens on certain day of the week where there’s promotion, so you gotta catch the right time.

This works out to about HKD1.03/egg.

Verdict:
Assuming that we consume 5 eggs a week, this will work out to:
In KL: RM0.35 x 5 = RM1.75 (HKD4.25)
In HK: HKD1.03 x 5 = HKD5.15 (RM2.11)

The difference is not much, but if you are heavy eggs eater, you will probably feel the pinch. When we first came, they weren’t selling US eggs, hence we felt the pinch each time we purchase eggs. Eat sparingly was the motto back then :P.

It’s definitely more affordable making egg sandwich for party in KL rather than HK :).

Cost of Living Comparison Round II: KL 1 – HK 1

Have a nice weekend and do check out the Organic egg price for me in KL ya ;). As for now, any eggs for lunch / dinner tonight?

9 thoughts on “Cost of Living Review: Eggs”

  1. My kids and I love eggs too. We eat at least 2 crates in a week. Eggs are the cheapest source of protein and the yolk is choke-full of nutrients. We can’t live w/o eggs 😉

  2. I get organic large brown eggs from costco warehouse – 18 eggs for USD5.00. If on sale, and no brand/type preferences you can get USD0.99 for 1 dozen, usually white eggs.

    I wonder why so many imported eggs in HKG, won’t that make the egg not fresh anymore?

    1. Anna, very affordable in US lehh…yeah lor, kinda weird, but I guess they dare not trust China eggs, and examining takes long time, hence they need to supplement it with eggs from other countries :|.

  3. eggs definitely cheaper here, as we have many chicken farms and we don’t have the hit of the bird flu like what happen in HK earlier. I buy eggs from the wholesaler which comes in 30 eggs per carton and prices vary from week to week.

    Grade A eggs – around 8.45 to 9.15
    Grade B eggs – around 8.00 to 8.50
    Grade C eggs – around 7.50 to 8.00

    Those omega eggs cost around RM4.90 to 5.15 for 10 eggs in a carton
    We have now some ‘new’ eggs called the pasteurised egg cost around RM5 to RM6 for 4 pieces

    1. Cynthia, yup you are right, there’s no bird flu like in HK :). Probably it was cheaper back then. But these are basic stuff, I’d expect the govt do a better control over the price. If not poorer people might not be able to even eat eggs LOL.

  4. egg just commodity ar….?
    how about stocking up from CN? or CN one may be “fake”?????

    I guess we cant have the best of everything. So we make do with what we have =)

  5. We can’t live without eggs too and sometimes, I do stir-fry vegetables with eggs too… I don’t find that weird :p Btw, the organic eggs in KL cost around RM8-RM10 for a carton of 10. I usually just buy the kampung eggs as they are good enough for me 🙂

    1. Chloe,

      oh..I really can’t see myself eating fry eggs and veg LOL. Oh thanks for the info, cheaper organic eggs at KL also :).

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