Updated Jan. 11 with the latest Consumer Price Index data.
After falling for months, egg prices are rising again and could continue that way for the first part of 2024 as farmers grapple with another outbreak of bird flu.
The average cost of a dozen Grade A large eggs was $2.51 in December, up from $2.14 in November, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, retrieved from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ FRED site.
Despite the month-to-month increase, egg prices are nowhere near where they were a year ago. CPI data show egg prices are down 23.8% from December 2022.
Egg prices
The FRED has tracked the consumer price of eggs since at least 1980, when large, Grade A eggs cost $0.88 a dozen, not adjusted for inflation.
Before February 2022, the average cost of a dozen had largely stayed below $2 since March 2016.
The price of eggs more than doubled from the beginning of 2022 until hitting its peak of $4.82 per dozen in January 2023. Since then, prices fell steadily until the fall but still hadn’t reached pre-pandemic norms before ticking up again.
So, why did egg costs get so high? The pandemic and inflation play a factor, but they aren’t the real culprit.
Why are eggs so expensive?
Eggs became so expensive because of a widespread outbreak of H5N1, a highly transmissible and fatal strain of avian influenza, or bird flu. This outbreak started in early 2022 and grew into the largest bird flu outbreak in U.S. history.
The outbreak reduced the egg supply, while demand remained consistent, leading to higher prices.
Prices eased as the number of bird flu cases declined in 2023, with no infections reported from May through September.
However, a resurgence of cases in November further reduced the population of egg-laying hens by more than 5 million birds, according to the USDA Economic Research Service. As a result, the USDA expects prices to rise again in the first half of 2024.
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Why is there an egg shortage?
There’s an egg shortage because the ongoing bird flu outbreak has affected millions of egg-laying chickens. As of January, more than 81 million birds have died in the U.S. due to the outbreak, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of the birds affected were egg-laying hens.
