If you reside within the US, and you have been monitoring the value of eggs, you have most likely skilled some sticker shock. The nationwide common worth for a dozen eggs in December 2024 was $4.15, and costs are nonetheless rising in January. What’s taking place?
An ongoing hen flu epidemic has compelled farmers to kill hundreds of thousands of egg-laying hens, resulting in a critical scarcity. The low provide of eggs means clients find yourself paying fairly a bit greater than regular on the grocery store. In some locations, eggs now price greater than double what they did six months in the past.
Though you will discover a substitute for eggs in lots of circumstances, even in case you’re baking, it will probably nonetheless be irritating to go with out this kitchen staple. We’ll clarify the hen flu’s impression on egg provides and focus on if you may begin to see the value of eggs go down.
Read extra: Raw Cat Food Linked to Bird Flu — A Vet Shares How to Protect Your Pets From the Virus
Why are egg costs so excessive proper now?
Website Pantry & Larder has a web page referred to as Eggspensive that tracks the value of a dozen eggs at Walmart shops nationwide.
This spike in egg costs has been pushed by a virulent pressure of hen flu that prompted the demise of 20 million egg-laying chickens within the final quarter of 2024.
According to the US Department of Agriculture, the hen flu has resulted in near 100 million chickens, turkeys and different poultry being killed since early 2022. Most of the birds culled to cease the epidemic have been egg-laying hens, inflicting the value of eggs to skyrocket and availability to plummet.
Bird flu is attributable to avian influenza Type A viruses, which unfold amongst waterfowl and may infect different wild birds, home poultry and different animals. Though hen flu hardly ever infects people, the present outbreak is liable for 67 human circumstances within the US and one demise, as of this writing.
Will the hen flu imply that egg costs keep excessive?
That relies upon. Severe winter climate has been one issue within the current worth spike, however it appears to be hen flu that is inflicting the general worth enhance. The most up-to-date USDA Egg Market Overview report, revealed Jan. 10, reveals that the typical worth for a dozen eggs in California rose to a whopping $8.97. California has been one of many states hit hardest by hen flu.
The drop in provide of eggs from hen flu can be resulting in empty cabinets in supermarkets, and a few grocery shops have began limiting the quantity of eggs that clients are allowed to buy.
There is a few excellent news, although: The USDA is projecting that egg costs will begin to return to regular by April 2025. According to its month-to-month World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report, the value will drop again right down to $2.50 per dozen within the second quarter of 2025, and right down to $2.10 within the third quarter. Still, which means eggs are more likely to stay costly all through the winter.
The USDA predicts that egg costs will lower beginning within the second quarter of 2025.
What occurred in 2015 when hen flu made egg costs spike?
It’s not the primary time hen flu has prompted egg costs to rise dramatically. Back in late 2014 to June 2015, an earlier hen flu pandemic within the US prompted the value of eggs to almost double.
According to the USDA, greater than 50 million chickens have been killed by the hen flu or euthanized throughout these seven months, inflicting the value of a dozen grade A big eggs within the New York market to spike from $1.29 in April 2015 to $2.61 in August. That worth did not revert again right down to its former common till early 2016.
The USDA referred to as the 2014-2015 hen flu epidemic “the most important poultry well being catastrophe in US historical past,” however the present hen flu epidemic that began in 2022 is even bigger — greater than 13 million chickens have been affected prior to now 30 days alone.
