Americans shoppers are increasingly encountering skyrocketing prices for eggs at grocery stores across the country and in some cases even empty shelves, according to dozens of local news reports.
Despite the rising price of eggs becoming a key issue during the 2024 U.S. presidential election, not much has been done since then to rein-in prices and things look like they could get worse this year.
The average cost of a dozen grade-A large eggs soared over 65% in December to $4.15, compared to $2.51 just a year ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this month.
The main culprits behind the price hikes and shortages seem to be steadily rising inflation and a spike in bird flu infections across the nation’s supply of egg-laying hens.
Here is everything you need to know about rising egg prices:
The primary reason for rising egg prices is a shrinking of the nation’s egg-laying hen population due to the ongoing bird flu outbreak.
H5N1 is a type of bird influenza virus that was first detected in 1996 in domestic water foul — such as ducks and geese — in Southern China. It is highly-contagious among birds. A new outbreak of the virus was first detected in 2020 among wild birds in Europe. This outbreak eventually made its way to the U.S. in 2022.
Since then, over 136 million birds, including commercial poultry, have been infected, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In just the past 30 days, nearly 12 million cases among U.S. birds were detected.
Whenever a flock is infected they are culled — killed — in order to stop the spread of the virus. For example, a farm in New York recently made headlines after it was forced to euthanize 100,000 ducks after health officials confirmed the flock was infected with the bird flu.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported this month that the country’s egg production fell 3% in December and the population of all egg-laying poultry fell 2% from last year.
At the same time, food prices overall are on the rise too. The U.S. Deparment of Agriculture (USDA) expects prices for all food products to rise 2.2% this year. Grocery store prices are expected to increase by 1.3%.
Just before leaving office, former President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would be ramping up its bird flu response, by awarding $306 million in funding to boost disease surveillance, testing, and monitoring efforts.
For his part, President Donald Trump has yet to take an any specific steps to stop the spread of the bird flu. However, he has made some efforts at tackling rising prices. In an executive order, Trump ordered government agencies to start “pursuing appropriate actions” to lower costs for American families.
He also signed executive orders aimed at increasing oil production and lowering energy costs with the hopes to bring down the cost of all goods.
“Prices are going to come down, but it’s going to take a little bit of time, right?,” Vice President J.D. Vance said in an interview on Sunday with CBS’s Face the Nation. “Donald Trump has already taken multiple executive actions that are going to lower energy prices, and I do believe that means consumers are going to see lower prices at the pump and at the grocery store, but it’s going to take a little bit of time.”
It doesn’t seem like egg prices will be dropping anytime soon.
The USDA projects that egg prices will continue to rise 20.3% in 2025.
The spread of the flu would need to stop and it could take months for farms to replenish their egg-laying hen population.
Brian Moscogiuri, a vice president at Eggs Unlimited – a California-based wholesaler, told the New York Times it could take the market six months to stabilize.
“We need to see outbreaks of avian influenza stop. We need a period of time when the farms aren’t being impacted and can repopulate their chickens and we need to see demand start to slow down,” Moscogiuri said.
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