India

India produces more eggs than any country except China, and it does so cheaply enough to place near the bottom of this index in dollar terms. The industry's engine room lies in the south — Tamil Nadu's Namakkal district alone ranks among the world's leading egg clusters — where enormous, vertically integrated layer farms supply both domestic demand and exports to the Gulf.

Prices are unusually transparent by global standards. The National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC), a producers' body, publishes suggested daily rates for dozens of cities, and the figures are closely watched across the trade. Retail prices at a kirana store in Mumbai or Bengaluru track those daily rates plus a margin.

The caveat, as throughout this index, is income. A low price in dollars is not the same as a low price in minutes worked — India's statutory wage floor is low and varies by state, so the purchasing-power widget on this page tells a markedly different story from the sticker price. The figure shown here reflects prices observed daily at BigBasket, one of India's largest online grocers.