US egg prices are soaring to record highs as farmers are forced to slaughter millions of chickens in an attempt to halt the spread of bird flu, which has ripped through the nation’s poultry barns in recent months.
A dozen eggs reached more than $8 in wholesale markets this week, more than double the price of a year ago and the highest ever recorded, according to Expana, a commodity price information service. Grocers including Walmart and Kroger have begun to ration purchases in certain cases. The Waffle House chain — a staple in the US south and Midwest — has tacked a surcharge of 50 cents an egg on to its dishes.
Supplies of fresh eggs are falling short as farmers cull millions of hens to control a variant of avian influenza that first emerged in a US commercial flock three years ago.
Like petrol prices, eggs are a visible, if volatile, signpost of inflation to consumers. The consumer price index increased by 3 per cent year on year in January, with an index for eggs climbing more than 50 per cent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Wednesday. The average US resident will eat about 270 eggs this year, the US Department of Agriculture forecasts.
Egg prices also have political resonance and were an attack line in last year’s campaign for the White House. Then US vice-presidential candidate JD Vance in September stood before a supermarket egg case to criticise the economic policies of his predecessor Kamala Harris, when the US city average price of large Grade A eggs was $3.82 a dozen, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The price was $4.95 in January.
Democrats have now seized on the issue. “We went to get some eggs, and we can see the prices of these eggs had now jumped to about $8. But there were no eggs,” Ted Lieu, a Democratic representative from California, said this week of a recent trip to the grocery store.
The top egg retailers are Walmart, Costco, Kroger, Albertsons and Aldi, according to Numerator. A majority — 55 per cent — of consumers have noticed shortages or out-of-stock eggs local retailers, the market research firm said.
Chains including Kroger, Aldi and Walmart have imposed restrictions on purchases, at certain locations or in certain package sizes.
“Although supply is very tight, we’re working with suppliers to try and help meet customer demand, while striving to keep prices as low as possible,” said Walmart, which is limiting purchases of 60-count cartons to two per visit.
Cal-Maine Foods, the largest US producer and distributor of fresh shell eggs, said demand was outpacing supply as it reported quarterly gross profit of $356mn, a fourfold increase from a year before.
“Without question, we have recently faced significant challenges within our company and the entire egg industry due to the ongoing outbreaks” of avian influenza, Sherman Miller, chief executive, said last month.
Farmers have lost about 46mn laying hens in the past four months, or 15 per cent of a national flock of 304mn, said Karyn Rispoli, managing editor at Expana. “While bird flu has come and gone in waves over the past few years, this current outbreak is the most severe yet, with no signs of slowing,” she said.
Gino Lorenzoni, associate professor of poultry sciences and avian health at Penn State University, said the virus is typically spread from farm to farm by wild birds. Workers coming into contact with their droppings can carry it into a chicken barn on their boots.
Once a single case is detected, an entire flock must be culled.
“The virus is very deadly,” Lorenzoni said, but the industry tries “to get there very fast and kill the animals before the virus has a chance to spread to other facilities”.
Egg prices have risen not only because the flock of laying hens had declined, but because enhanced biosecurity measures such as disposable coveralls, booties and hairnets and enhanced disinfection protocols were driving up operating costs on farms, he said.
As well, market demand for cage-free eggs had been increasing costs, as each barn contains fewer animals, Lorenzoni said.
The USDA this week raised its forecast for the average wholesale price of Grade A eggs to $4.44 a dozen for 2025, up by more than half from its projection in January. The department projected US hens will lay 8.96bn dozen eggs this year, cutting its outlook from last month.
Prices have remained robust in part because of solid demand over the winter holidays, said Amy Smith, vice-president at Advanced Economic Solutions, a food and agriculture consultancy. Severe winter storms in the south-east last month led households to stock up, while consumers who are taking popular GLP-1 weight-loss drugs have been shifting their diets towards proteins.
Supermarkets have in some cases kept their retail egg price below the wholesale price as a loss leader, to attract customers to stores, said Smith and at Expana’s Rispoli.
“While some price increases have been passed through, they haven’t been significant enough to curb consumer interest,” Rispoli said.
