Efficiency of Sales of Edible Eggs by Weight and Categories. Pricing Methodology

The yields of eggs of various categories from modern highly productive crosses of chickens (SP-789, Lohmann LSL Classic, Lohmann Brown Lite) were studied. The comparative efficiency of the egg sale by weight and categories, the development of a pricing methodology are discussed. It was found that for the considered crosses the first category is the modal class or the class of the highest frequency of occurrence. The average weight, the cost of 1 g of egg weight, and the new selling price of eggs of the first category practically coincide with the average values of these parameters of the general set. The most economically feasible is the sale of edible eggs by weight. However, it requires additional financial investments for the purchase, installation, and maintenance of weighing equipment. In this regard, the author has developed and proposed a methodology for determining the single-piece price sale of eggs of different categories, which makes it possible to increase the income of an enterprise as compared to selling eggs by weight. According to the new methodology the selling price of the first category eggs is taken as a basis for assessing the selling price of eggs of other categories. This value is multiplied by the coefficients for the corresponding categories, which are calculated by dividing the new price of eggs of each category by the new price of eggs of the first category. These coefficients should be developed for each specific cross, taking into account the duration of the productive seasons and the conditions of the farms.


Introduction
In modern economic conditions increasing the efficiency of production in poultry farming becomes not only the main direction of its development but also practically the only opportunity to further increase the production of eggs and poultry meat, and to increase the competitiveness and profitability of the industry [1][2][3][4]. The efficiency of the productive activity of poultry farms depends on a set of interrelated factors: housing conditions, productivity, livability and duration of productive use of poultry, product quality, feed and labor costs for production, market prices of products [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12].
Currently, poultry farms in Russia and the CIS countries sell edible eggs to the consumer by item, taking into account weight categories [13] while in the EU countries edible eggs are sold by weight [14].
According to the Russian State Standard GOST 31654 -2012 "Edible chicken eggs. Speci-fications" [15], edible eggs are divided into 5 weight categories: the third (35-44.9 g), the second (45-54.9 g), the first (55-64.9), selected (65-74.9 g), and the highest (75 g and more). The disad-vantage of this standard is that each weight category of eggs has a fairly large interval (9.9 g) [16]. So, when eggs are sold by the categorized items, the selling price of the lightest and the heaviest eggs within each category and the resulting income of the farm will be the same.
Analysis of the work of poultry enterprises in Russia showed that there is no single meth-odology for determining the selling price of eggs of various categories, and this process is arbi-trary. For example, during the period of studies the selling price of 10 eggs of the third, second, first, selected and highest categories amounted to 24.7, 27.3, 38.8, 45.7 and 52.6 rubles (SP1) at the Selection and Genetic Center "Zagorskoe Experimental Breeding Farm" of the Moscow re-gion. The purpose of this work was to study the yields of eggs of different categories for some modern highly productive crosses of chickens, to compare the efficiency of egg selling by weight and categories, and to develop a unified pricing methodology.

Materials and methods
The studies were carried out at the Selection and Genetic Center "Zagorskoe Experimental Breeding Farm" of the Federal Scientific Center "All-Russian Research and Technological Insti-tute of Poultry" of Russian Academy of Sciences (SGC ARRTPI) of the Moscow region and the poultry farm Mendeleevskaya of the Perm Territory.
1397 eggs from chickens of the productive flocks of cross SP-789 (SGC ARRTPI) and 1438 and 1446 eggs from crosses Lohmann LSL Classic and Lohmann Brown Lite (Mende-leevskaya), respectively, were weighed individually monthly (three days in a row) during their productive period. The laboratory scales with an accuracy of 0.1 g were used. The total and average weights of eggs; the yields of eggs of the highest, selected, first, second, third categories [15]; the total and average weights of eggs by category were determined.

Results and discussion
During the productive period the yields of eggs of the third, second, first selected and highest categories were as follows: • The total and average weights of all weighed eggs were 82,840 and 59.30 g for the SP-789 cross, 86,381 and 60.07 g for the Lohmann LSL Classic, 88,447 and 61.17 g for the Lohmann Brown Lite (Table 1).
Taking into account the listed characteristics and the selling prices for eggs categories, mathematical calculations were performed to determine the comparative efficiency of selling the edible eggs by weight and by category (by item). The following parameters were calculated: • The cost of 1 g of egg weight -by dividing the selling price of 1 egg by the average weight of eggs in each category; • Income from the sale of eggs by weight -by multiplying the cost of 1 g of egg weight of the first category by the total weight of eggs in each category; • A new selling price for eggs of different categories -by multiplying the cost of 1 g of egg weight of the first category by the average weight of eggs in each category.
It was found that when selling eggs by categories according to SP1 (Table 2), the SP-789 cross got a total income of 5226 rubles, while when selling eggs by weight, based on the cost of 1 g of egg mass of the 1st category (0.065 rubles) it amounted to 5384 rubles. For the Lohmann LSL Classic cross, the total income from the sale of eggs by category was 5,477 rubles, and from the sale of eggs by weight, based on the cost of 1 g of egg mass of the 1st category (0.065 rubles) it was 5,614 rubles. For the Lohmann Brown Lite cross, the total income from the sale of eggs by category amounted to 5652 rubles, and from the sale of eggs by weight, based on the cost of 1 g of egg mass of the 1st category (0.064 rubles) it was 5660 rubles.
When selling eggs by categories according to SP2 (Table 3), the total income of the SP-789 cross was 4804 rubles, while when selling eggs by weight, based on the cost of 1 g of egg mass of the 1st category (0.059 rubles) it amountsed to 4887 rubles. For the Lohmann LSL Classic cross, the total income from the sale of eggs by category was 5005 rubles, and from the sale of eggs by weight, it was 5096 rubles. For the Lohmann Brown Lite cross, the total income from the sale of eggs by category amounted to 5068 rubles, and from the sale of eggs by weight, based on the cost of 1 g of egg mass of the 1st category (0.058 rubles) it was 5131 rubles.
Similarly, when selling eggs by categories according to SP3 (Table 4), the total income of the SP-789 cross was 4996 rubles, and when selling eggs by weight, based on the cost of 1 g of egg mass of the 1st category (0.062 rubles) it was 5137 rubles. For the Lohmann LSL Classic cross total income from the sale of eggs by category was 5195 rubles, and when selling eggs by weight, based on the cost of 1 g of egg mass of the 1st category (0.062 rubles) it was 5361 ru-bles. For the Lohmann Brown Lite cross, the total income from the sale of eggs by category amounted to 5266 rubles, and from the sale of eggs by weight, based on the cost of 1 g of egg mass of the 1st category (0.061 rubles) it was 5394 rubles.
The presented data show that it is most economically feasible to sell edible eggs by weight. When selling eggs by weight based on the cost of 1 g of egg weight of the 1st category in comparison with selling by categories (  As a result of the study, it was found that for all three crosses, the modal class or the class of the highest frequency of occurrence is the first category (57.69-63.49%). The average weight of eggs, the cost of 1 g of egg weight and the new selling price of eggs of this category practically coincides with the average values of the general set.
It should be noted that the sale of eggs by weight requires additional financial investments for the purchase, installation and maintenance of weighing equipment. In this regard, in order to minimize financial losses of enterprises when selling eggs, coefficients have been developed (Table 5)

Conclusion
The study showed that for all the considered crosses the modal class or the class of the highest frequency of occurrence is the first category (57.69-63.49%). The average weight of eggs, the cost of 1 g of egg weight and the new selling price of eggs of this category practically coincide with the average values of these parameters of the general set. It was found that it is most economically reasonable to sell edible eggs by weight. The developed methodology for de-termining the selling price of eggs of different categories makes it possible to increase the income of enterprises to the level of income when selling eggs by weight.