Sacramento, California (The Adobo Chronicles) – Balut-loving Filipinos and others are in for some bad news effective January 1, 2015. Balut prices will increase 100%.

Balut is a duck embryo that is boiled alive and eaten in the shell. It is commonly sold as street food in the Philippines and other countries in Southeast Asia, such as Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. It is widely available at Asian supermarkets in California and other states in the U.S.

The culprit in the price hike is California’s Proposition 2, or the Standards for Confining Farm Animals, which was passed by voters in 2008 and which takes into effect January 1, 2015.

Proposition 2 created a new state statute that prohibits the confinement of farm animals -especially chicken and duck  – in a manner that does not allow them to turn around freely, lie down, stand up, and fully extend their limbs.

Duck raisers in California had to expand their farms and cages to comply with the new law, costing them an arm and a leg, and then some, to maintain their business.

“We have no choice but increase our balut prices in order to recover our additional investments,” said one duck raiser and balut supplier.

So balut lovers should be prepared to pay an average price of $6 per egg beginning in 2015. In Philippine pesos, that’s P260!