Eggs are available — but pricier — as the holiday baking season begins
Egg prices are rising again as an ongoing outbreak of bird flu coincides with the high demand of the holiday baking season.
But prices are still far from the recent peak they reached almost two years ago. And the American Egg Board, a trade group, says the egg shortages in grocery stores have so far been isolated and temporary.
“These are corrected quickly, sometimes within a day,” said Emily Metz, president and CEO of the Egg Board.
The average price for a dozen eggs in American cities was $3.37 in Octoberaccording to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was slightly lower than in September, and significantly lower than in January 2023, when the average price rose to $4.82. But it was 63% higher than in October 202, when a dozen eggs averaged $2.07.
Metz said the egg industry sees the highest demand in November and December.
“You can’t have your Christmas baked goods, your pumpkin pie and your stuffing without eggs,” she said.
Bird flu is the main reason for the higher prices. The current one bird flu outbreak which began in February 2022, has led to the slaughter of more than 111 million birds, mainly egg-laying chickens. Whenever the virus is found, every bird on a farm is killed to limit its spread the disease.
This month, more than six million birds were slaughtered due to bird flu. They made up a relatively small portion of the total U.S. egg-laying flock of 377 million chickens. Still, the flock has declined by about 3% over the past year, contributing to a 4% decline in egg production, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The latest wave of bird flu is throwing the supply of free eggs into disarray California is among the worst affected states. California, Nevada, Washington and Oregon all require eggs sold in their states be cage-free.
“We need to move eggs from other parts of the country where cage-free eggs are produced to cover the low supply in those states, because those states only allow the sale of cage-free eggs,” Metz said.
Cage-free requirements will go into effect next year in Arizona, Colorado and Michigan, and in 2030 in Rhode Island and Utah.
The demand for such special eggs may also contribute to bird flu, which spreads through the droppings of wild birds passing through farms. Allow chickens walk around more freely puts them at greater risk, says Chad Hart, a professor and agricultural economist at Iowa State University.
“It’s very difficult to control that interaction between domestic birds and wild birds,” Hart said. “Some of those vectors have been opened up because we’re asking the egg industry to produce in ways that we hadn’t asked of them before.”
Metz said climate change and extreme weather also blows some wild birds off course.
“We have birds that have been displaced by hurricanes and wildfires, and those birds are now circulating in areas where they might not otherwise circulate or at times of year where they might not otherwise circulate,” she said. These are all new variables that our farmers have to deal with.”
Hart said the egg industry is trying to rebuild the flock, but that could also limit supply because farmers have to hold back some eggs before new chickens can hatch.
Still, there is good news about American poultry companies. The price of chicken feed – which represents 70% of a farmer’s costs – has fallen significantly after doubling between 2020 and 2022, Hart said.
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Durbin reported from Detroit. Funk reported from Omaha. Vancleave reported from Minneapolis.