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FOX Business’ Jeff Flock visits a Pennsylvania farm that rents chickens to customers looking to offset the high cost of eggs on ‘The Claman Countdown.’
Egg prices are rising and industry experts project these higher costs will persist through 2025, particularly if highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), also known as “bird flu,” continues.
Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute sector manager Kevin Bergquist said egg prices have increased since 2023 due to a combination of seasonal price increases during the holidays and disruption in egg supplies due to bird flu. .
Prices over the past year have remained “generally” above 2023 prices and even “often exceeded egg prices starting in 2022, which is when HPAI really captured the egg market,” according to Bergquist. .
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Wholesale egg prices, which rose nearly 55% in November, do not necessarily reflect consumer egg prices in grocery stores, which can vary widely.
Racks of eggs are seen with a note apologizing to customers for the price increase following reduced productivity caused by poultry deaths caused by various diseases, in San Mateo, California, United States, on 23 January 2023. ((Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
According to the Consumer Price Index, grocery prices rose 0.5% in November, and the cost of four of the six major food groups in grocery stores increased. Eggs showed the largest increase by a wide margin.
Prices for meat, poultry, fish and eggs rose 1.7% in November, but egg prices rose 8.2%.
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Dr. Michael Swanson, chief agricultural economist at the Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute, told Fox Business that consumer price is more relevant because it’s what the consumer sees.
“Many retailers are slow to adjust prices on staples like milk and eggs that draw consumers to the store,” Swanson said. “They will use that category to help with their overall pricing. Sometimes they take larger margins and other times they take negative margins for the short term to avoid upsetting the consumer with big changes.”
Before the major bird flu outbreak in March 2022, flock numbers were at a level that supported falling egg prices, according to Bergquist. He noted that the wholesale price was less than $1.50 a dozen.
A customer buys eggs at a Kroger store on August 15, 2022 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images/Getty Images)
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However, the outbreak disrupted the market, leading to record egg prices in December 2022. The average price corrected to a lower level in 2023 as producers rebuilt their flocks.
Bergquist said flock size was again hampered when bird flu resurfaced in late 2023 and into 2024, resulting in undersupplied egg markets.
Producers have not yet been able to rebuild the entire egg flock due to this year’s recurring outbreaks.
