Fox Business’ Jeff Flock visits a Pennsylvania farm that rents chickens to customers to offset the high cost of eggs on ‘The Clams Countdown’.
egg prices are increasing, and industry experts predict that these high costs will persist through 2025, especially if highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), also known as “bird flu” infections, persist.
Kevin Bergquist, sector manager at the Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute, said egg prices are set to rise through 2023 due to a combination of seasonal price increases during the holidays and disruptions in egg supply due to bird flu.
According to Bergquist, prices last year “generally” remained above 2023 prices and even “often exceeded egg prices from 2022, when HPAI really took over the egg market.”
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Wholesale egg prices, which rose nearly 55% in November, do not necessarily reflect consumer eggs. prices at the grocery store, which can vary widely.
Shelves of eggs are seen with a note apologizing to customers for increasing prices following reduced productivity due to poultry deaths due to various diseases in San Mateo, California, United States, on January 23, 2023. ((Photo by Tefun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)/Getty Images)
According to the Consumer Price Index, grocery prices rose 0.5% in November, with costs for four of the six major grocery store food groups increasing. The price of eggs saw the largest increase by a wide margin.
Meat, poultry, fish and egg prices 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 that’s what the consumer looks at.
“Many retailers have been slow to adjust the prices of staple foods, like milk and eggs, that bring consumers to the stores,” Swanson said. “They will use that range to help their overall pricing. Sometimes, they get bigger margins, and sometimes they take negative margins for the short term to avoid upsetting the consumer with big changes. “
Before a large-scale bird flu outbreak According to Bergquist, in March 2022, flock numbers were at a level that supported low egg prices. He said the wholesale price was less than $1.50 a dozen.
A customer shops for eggs at a Kroger grocery store in Houston, Texas on August 15, 2022. (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 dropped to lower levels through 2023 as producers rebuilt their herds.
When bird flu re-emerged in late 2023 and 2024, flock sizes were again disrupted, resulting in short supply to the egg market, Bergquist said.
Producers have still not been able to rebuild total laying flocks due to resurgent outbreaks this year.
