What Is Going On With the Price of Eggs?

If you've shopped for eggs recently, you know that the price of eggs has doubled in recent months. But why? And when are prices expected to drop back down?

The first reason that egg prices have skyrocketed is plain old inflation--everything is more expensive now for a variety of reasons, one being the Ukraine-Russia war. Ukraine and Russia are key suppliers of the wheat and grains that chickens feed on. The countries have greatly reduced their exports of wheat and grain. Supply is down, which means that prices are up.

In addition to the wheat and grain supply issue, a highly contagious, often fatal avian influenza has been ravaging the hen population. The CDC estimates that a whopping 58,200,500+ birds in the USA have been affected! Less hens = less eggs, which drives up the price even more. Luckily, The CDC has not reported any new cases of the influenza backyard or commercial flocks since late December. But, this doesn't mean that our egg price problem is over.

According to a Feb. 2, 2023 article on Food Dive, "Experts do not expect prices to return to where they were before last year’s highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak...replacing that amount of egg production in the market requires shipping eggs from other providers or locations, which itself requires added freight and logistics — two items that were particularly challenged during the pandemic".

It's about time to start making friends with your chicken-owning neighbors!