California egg prices rose dramatically over the last month due to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and other issues affecting farms across the state and throughout the country, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The price of a dozen large, white eggs spiked to approximately $8.97 per dozen in California as of Jan. 3, up from $5.28 in late November, a 70 percent increase, reported the USDA.
Bird flu cases in California have been reported in Butte, Merced, Riverside, Sacramento, San Joaquin, El Dorado, Monterey, Tulare, Kern, Fresno, and Stanislaus counties in recent weeks.
As of Jan. 6, there have been 19 affected commercial flocks, three affected backyard flocks, and a total of 4.6 million birds affected in this outbreak in the state.
Meanwhile, farmers are trying to manage the market conditions. Frank Hilliker, owner of Hilliker’s Ranch Fresh Eggs in San Diego County, said he’s been rationing his product by limiting the number of eggs his customers can buy at his farm store.
“We as egg farmers are doing everything we can to mitigate the circumstances of avian influenza,” he told The Epoch Times.
Hilliker, who has about 30,000 egg-laying chickens, has also had to raise his prices from $3 a dozen to $4.50 to meet increased demand at his ranch. He also sells to restaurants and grocery stores.
“We have a lot of loyal customers that come to us because they want fresh eggs,” he said. “We’re trying to help out all the people who want to come get eggs.”
Hilliker said he could close his farm store and sell all of the eggs to the stores and restaurants for over $8 a dozen, but he prioritizes selling directly to the public. Among his customers are fixed-income and elderly people, as well as families.
Grocery stores are also having to adapt to current market conditions. At Krisp’s Market in San Diego’s Golden Hill neighborhood, manager Francisco Hernandez said demand for eggs in his store has slowed due to high prices.
“It’s costing us more than double than what we used to pay,” Hernandez told The Epoch Times. Instead of buying his usual 18 cases every week, he’s buying seven or fewer every other week.
Brian Earnest, lead economist on animal protein at CoBank, says people will likely continue to see increased prices until the market corrects.
“California’s egg market is dealing with a unique set of challenges that have precipitated higher prices for consumers,” he said, noting that until the current challenges subside, the cost to produce and buy eggs in California will remain elevated.
While Earnest acknowledges HPAI’s role in driving food prices higher—saying HPAI disease outbreaks have kept egg prices intermittently high for the past three years—he also cites California regulations, in particular Proposition 12.
In 2018, California voters approved the law, also known as the Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act, which required all eggs sold in the state to be laid by cage-free hens by 2022. The U.S. Supreme Court heard constitutional arguments against Prop. 12, but upheld the law, arguing that states can create their own animal welfare laws.
Before Prop. 12, voters in 2008 approved Proposition 2, known as the Standards for Confining Farm Animals Initiative, which gave egg-laying hens at least enough room to turn around freely. The law went into effect Jan. 1, 2015.
Daniel Sumner, agricultural and resource economics professor at the University of California–Davis, says that the egg market works like any other market and is vulnerable to supply shocks and government restrictions. He says Prop. 12 banned eggs that are normally one dollar cheaper per dozen than the cage-free eggs mandated in California.
“Because we limit our access, California markets are also more prone to price spikes,” Sumner said.
Prices rise with regulation, inflation, and other government-created issues, said Sumner, who was senior economist at President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers and served under President George H.W. Bush as the assistant secretary for economics at the USDA.
“Voters chose to make the market more vulnerable to natural supply variability,” Sumner said. “Anyone who pays attention to food prices knows that whether lettuce, oranges, or peaches, prices fluctuate with weather, plant and animal diseases, and other temporary disruptions.”
At the end of the day, the consumer pays the price or misses out on an important staple.
“Eggs have long offered the consumer an affordable and nutritious option, and I do hope the industry is able to return production to levels that will satisfy egg market needs,” Earnest said.
From The Epoch Times