Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question is from [inaudible] with Lehman Brothers. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Analyst – Lehman Brothers
I missed a couple of housekeeping items, you mentioned your volumes were up 1% for the egg business, is that right?
Mark D. Witmer
Right, for the fourth quarter.
Unidentified Analyst – Lehman Brothers
And what was it for the year?
Mark D. Witmer
For the year, I probably have that number relatively handy here.
Unidentified Analyst – Lehman Brothers
I don’t know if you would have that data of volumes for value added versus your ingredient business separately for either period?
Mark W. Westphal
Let’s take a peek. I don’t think I do have that number. We’re going to do some quick calculations.
Unidentified Analyst – Lehman Brothers
Okay. Just kind of while you’re doing that, this is a broader question, it seems like in the fourth quarter and I guess to some extent in the third quarter your pricing finally caught up with the higher costs Dave and Gregg and the gang. But then, your comments suggested on the first quarter that you might be under pressure but generally speaking are you feeling better on pricing curve versus the cost curve now versus a year ago? Do you generally expect your pricing curve to be pretty close to your cost curve here in 08?
David S. Johnson
What happen in the fourth quarter is we are still not in a position, what I would call equilibrium in the food service channel yet because of the rapid rise of grains and sort of the continued rise so we’ve taken a number of price increases. It was really more as Mark alluded to a little bit more the food ingredient and the shell eggs that allowed us to show our EBTIDA increase in Q4. The pressure on food service will continue through Q1. There is clearly the possibility that by Q2 I think, we could start to see equilibrium where our execution has caught up to the costs. Obviously, that depends on where the commodities go from here which is why I made the comment I did. So, it’s been a challenge catching up to the increases which have been pretty constant but I think [inaudible] for the food service on the egg business as well as what we talked about in the cheese business, if the markets settle down the execution is starting to catch up to that.
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