If you reside within the US, and you’ve got been monitoring the value of eggs, you have most likely skilled some sticker shock. The nationwide common value for a dozen eggs in December 2024 was $4.15, and costs are nonetheless rising in January. What’s occurring?
An ongoing chicken flu epidemic has compelled farmers to kill thousands and thousands of egg-laying hens, resulting in a critical scarcity. The low provide of eggs means prospects find yourself paying fairly a bit greater than regular on the grocery store. In some locations, eggs now value greater than double what they did six months in the past.
Though you’ll find a substitute for eggs in lots of instances, even in case you’re baking, it could nonetheless be irritating to go with out this kitchen staple. We’ll clarify the chicken flu’s impression on egg provides and talk about 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 chicken flu that induced the demise of 20 million egg-laying chickens within the final quarter of 2024.
According to the US Department of Agriculture, the chicken 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 brought on by avian influenza Type A viruses, which unfold amongst waterfowl and may infect different wild birds, home poultry and different animals. Though chicken flu not often infects people, the present outbreak is liable for 67 human instances within the US and one demise, as of this writing.
Will the chicken flu imply that egg costs keep excessive?
That relies upon. Severe winter climate has been one issue within the current value spike, however it appears to be chicken flu that is inflicting the general value improve. The most up-to-date USDA Egg Market Overview report, printed Jan. 10, exhibits that the common value for a dozen eggs in California rose to a whopping $8.97. California has been one of many states hit hardest by chicken flu.
The drop in provide of eggs from chicken flu can also be resulting in empty cabinets in supermarkets, and a few grocery shops have began limiting the quantity of eggs that prospects 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, meaning eggs are prone 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 chicken flu made egg costs spike?
It’s not the primary time chicken flu has induced egg costs to rise dramatically. Back in late 2014 to June 2015, an earlier chicken flu pandemic within the US induced the value of eggs to just about double.
According to the USDA, greater than 50 million chickens had been killed by the chicken 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 value did not revert again right down to its former common till early 2016.
The USDA referred to as the 2014-2015 chicken flu epidemic “the biggest poultry well being catastrophe in US historical past,” however the present chicken flu epidemic that began in 2022 is even bigger — greater than 13 million chickens have been affected previously 30 days alone.
