Despite the Trump Administration’s talk of a drop in egg prices, everyday consumers are still feeling the pressure on their wallets. The retail price of eggs remained elevated and continued to rise in March, increasing by nearly 6% to $6.23 a dozen, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s more than double the retail price of eggs in March 2024, when eggs cost $2.99 a dozen. So, what exactly is causing the egg shortage and rising prices? The pandemic and inflation has contributed to the overall rise in the price of groceries. But the shell-shocking price of eggs has reached record highs in recent months, due to the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) (also known as bird flu) outbreaks. More than 23 million birds were affected by bird flu in January, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Infected birds have to be depopulated, contributing to the national egg shortage. “It will take time to replace the hens and restore normalcy,” Mike Walden, an economist at North Carolina State University, tells TIME. “There has been an increase in egg imports and federal help to increase hens. All this will take time, so my best recommendation for the consumer is to buy fewer eggs and use other sources of protein.” Read More: 8 Surprising—and Healthy—Egg Replacements USDA data indicates that the number of flocks, and therefore birds, that have been affected by the avian flu has substantially decreased over the last few months. In March, some 2 million birds were culled as a result of contracting the disease. The widespread bird flu first affected livestock on U.S. turkey farms in 2020, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). By 2024, the H5N1 strain of the virus began to impact goat kids and dairy cows. The first-ever reported cow-to-human spread of the avian influenza virus was also recorded last April. Amid the shortage upset, the U.S. has sought to import eggs from Turkey and South Korea to meet demand and lower egg prices. “When our chicken populations are repopulated, and we’ve got a full egg laying industry going again, hopefully in a couple of months, we then shift back to our internal egg layers and moving those eggs out onto the shelf,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in March. Local officials have also been attempting to keep egg prices at bay. Beginning on Feb. 20, the Nevada Department of Agriculture temporarily suspended a previous state law requiring eggs to be cage-free—eggs that come from hens that do not live in cages. The agency also allowed for the sale of Grade B quality eggs, which are a lower quality than Grade A eggs and are typically used to make frozen and dried egg products. American restaurant chain Waffle House announced they would be adding a 50-cent per egg surcharge to orders due to the egg shortage and rise in prices. "While we hope these price fluctuations will be short-lived we cannot predict how long this shortage will last,” Waffle House said in a Feb. 4 statement to the Associated Press. Now, marketers are working to meet the usual demand around Easter, when families often dye and paint eggs, or hide them for a holiday hunt. “Retail demand is limited in the near-term which has provided grocers with an opportunity to overcome the shell egg shortages that plagued the marketplace earlier in the year and prices at retail are gradually adjusting downward in many parts of the country,” USDA said in its weekly egg markets overview published on April 4. Generally, egg supply has improved at local grocery stores, the market report confirmed. Still, February marked the lowest level of egg products stocks in the last decade, according to USDA. According to David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University, who spoke to the New York Times, although wholesale prices have decreased, it could take weeks for that to be reflected in retail prices. “All indications are that there’s some relief coming for consumers,” he is quoted as saying, but “even then, there are a lot of other factors that determine the price of eggs.
