Egg Prices Unlikely to Deter Easter Sales

Although egg prices continue to rise, The Nielsen Company, New York, is predicting that sales this week, leading up to Easter, will likely be unaffected, and are projected to hit more than $95 milliona figure just up from 2007 sales of $94.7 million during the same period in U.S. food, drug and mass-merchandiser stores, including Wal-Mart.

Egg prices are projected to increase for the third consecutive year as retailers and consumers continue to struggle with higher commodity and energy costs, said Todd Hale, senior vice president, Consumer & Shopper Insights, Nielsen Consumer Panel Services. While we would expect to see some decline in the number of egg cartons sold given price increases, we certainly dont see consumers widely cutting back on this food staple and Easters egg-decorating tradition.

The market-research firm also anticipates that U.S. consumers will purchase more than 17 million egg-coloring and/or egg-dying kits this week. Sales for chocolate candy are also typically strong during the period leading up to Easter, with $318 million in sales expected. Easter is only second to Valentines Day in domestic chocolate sales.

For complete details, refer to the press release recently issued by The Nielsen Company on this subject.