Egg prices impact small businesses on the Central Coast

SEASIDE, Calif. (KMUV-TV): Inflation continues to make prices soar, and the United States Department of Labor reports that food prices have risen 10%. Currently, eggs are one of the most expensive products on the market.

Egg prices have risen because of bird flu, a virus that killed thousands of chickens last year, and prices are putting small business owners in check.

"It's something that went up drastically," said Luis Hector Bernardo Canseco, owner of Zimatlan Bakery & Deli in the City of Seaside.

Canseco owns his bakery and restaurant business in Seaside, and he said he and his wife have had to raise their prices a bit because of the high price of eggs. But, it's not just them who have been affected.

"Yes, we had to raise it a little, but the people who bought $15 of bread from you a year ago are also limiting themselves right now, they are buying half of it from you," Canseco said.

Canseco added that a concha used to cost his customers 75 cents, and now they cost around $1. Last year, Canseco bought a 40-pound box of eggs for $108, now it's $139. A $31 increase in just a year.

Canseco added that although the price of eggs, as well as other foods that he needs to be able to sell his food and bread, keep rising, he does not plan to change the quality of his food.

"My clients, I try to give them the best, you know what I mean, like any other merchant," Canseco said.

The US inflation calculator reports that the price of a dozen eggs in January was $4.82, and in December of last year, it was $4.25.