As you prepare for the holiday feast this Thanksgiving season, you may notice higher egg prices once again, driven by increased demand and the ongoing impact of the bird flu outbreak.
Shoppers in various parts of the United States, including Denver, Miami, and New York, have encountered empty egg shelves in stores. In some instances, retailers have posted signs requesting customers to limit egg purchases due to sourcing challenges.
Egg prices have risen more than any other food over the last year, even as overall grocery costs only increased by about 1 percent.
In October, the average price for a dozen eggs in U.S. cities was $3.37, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This marks a slight decrease from September and a significant drop from January 2023’s peak of $4.82. However, it’s a 63 percent increase compared to October 2023, when the average price was $2.07.
Millions of Americans are flocking to stores this holiday season, as November and December mark the peak demand period for eggs.
“You can’t have your holiday baking, your pumpkin pie, your stuffing, without eggs,” said Emily Metz, president and CEO of the American Egg Board.
While egg prices have risen, they remain below the peak levels seen nearly two years ago. The American Egg Board reports that recent shortages in grocery stores have been isolated and temporary.
“Those are being rapidly corrected, sometimes within a day,” said Metz.
Experts say avian influenza, commonly referred to as bird flu, is mostly to blame. Bird flu is a highly contagious viral infection that affects poultry populations and is the main reason for the higher prices.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 109 million poultry birds have been affected across 49 states, resulting in widespread culling to control the virus’s spread. Anytime the virus is found, every bird on a farm is killed to limit the spread of the disease.
In the past month, over 6 million birds have been culled due to bird flu, impacting the U.S. egg-laying flock, which now numbers approximately 377 million chickens. This reduction has contributed to a 4 percent decrease in egg production over the past year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Several states, including California, Colorado, and Massachusetts, have implemented laws mandating cage-free egg production. Companies like Walmart, Kroger, and McDonald’s have pledged to sell or use only cage-free eggs by specific deadlines, further pressuring producers to transition.
“We’re having to move eggs from other areas of the country that are producing cage-free to cover that low supply in those states, because those states only allow for cage-free eggs to be sold,” Metz said.
Cage-free requirements are set to take effect in Arizona, Colorado, and Michigan next year and in Rhode Island and Utah in 2030.
The demand for specialty eggs may also be contributing to the spread of avian flu, which is transmitted through droppings from migratory wild birds. Allowing chickens to roam freely increases their exposure to this risk, according to Chad Hart, a professor and agricultural economist at Iowa State University.
“It’s really hard to control that interaction between domesticated 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 didn’t ask them to before.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.