Not so long ago, eggs were the poster child for runaway grocery bills. People were scrambling just to find a dozen. Some stores were rationing eggs, and prices went through the roof.
Today, though, Americans are getting a break on eggs. In fact, the national frying pan runneth over with eggs, and the average retail price has fallen sharply to about $2.50 per dozen.
"There's never been a better time to buy eggs," says Emily Metz, president and CEO of the American Egg Board. "Our message right now is, pick up another dozen. They're especially affordable right now."
The turnaround is all about avian flu, which a year ago had wiped out tens of millions of laying hens. The virus that causes the flu hasn't gone away. There were big outbreaks last month in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina. But flu season has done far less damage to egg farms this winter than last.
Whether that's thanks to farmers' increased safety precautions, changes in the flu virus or just plain luck, there are about 9 million more hens laying eggs in the U.S. now than there were this time last year.
"We've had the time to expand the flock of egg-laying chickens," says livestock economist David Anderson of Texas A&M University. "And that's helped bring down prices."
Farmers, though, are not celebrating
While falling prices are good for egg lovers, they're not so good for egg farmers. Although the supermarket price of eggs has dropped 42% in the last 12 months, the wholesale price that farmers receive has plummeted more than 90%, to around 70 cents a dozen.
"That's an extremely low price," Anderson says. "We're into the territory where it's probably below producers' production cost."
When prices were sky-high, farmers who had eggs to sell made good money. Now that prices have plunged, they're barely getting by. Egg farmers are reluctant to cut back on birds, though, since they don't know when the flu might flare up again.
Mike Puglisi's egg farm was one of the first to get hit with avian flu back in 2022. The virus wiped out 80% of his laying flock in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
"First of all, it's emotional because everything that I did my entire life was to keep chickens healthy," Puglisi says. "Now all of a sudden, you have to have all your chickens euthanized. You have to destroy all the eggs so you don't spread it. It's traumatic."
It took Puglisi the better part of a year to restock his henhouses. Since then, he has been fortunate not to face any further flu outbreaks. He uses lasers and predatory bird calls to keep wild birds that might carry the virus away from his flock. He's also extra-careful about the people who come in contact with his chickens.
"All henhouse employees, when they come in, in the morning, they take off their street clothes, they go through a shower and they wear farm clothes," Puglisi says. "The farm clothes stay on the farm at all times. We launder them on a daily basis for them so they, next day, they'll have clean clothes."
Farmers also face other rising costs
All these biosafety measures cost money. And while the price of chicken feed has gone down this year, most of Puglisi's other expenses have increased.
"If you can tell me a way to produce eggs and not lose money, I'm all ears," Puglisi says with a rueful laugh. "You can't even pay for feed at that price. And that's where we're at right now."
Just as people didn't stop buying eggs when prices took off last year, they aren't buying a whole lot more, now that prices have come back to Earth. Still, with Easter around the corner, farmers are hoping that demand might crack wide open.
"Easter is our Super Bowl," says the American Egg Board's Metz. "Get ready to celebrate Easter, Passover, all of the springtime holidays — and maybe dye an extra dozen this year."
A seasonal warning for your Easter basket, though: The price of chocolate eggs is still going up.
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