- Retail egg prices are at record highs. That’s largely due to a deadly and historic outbreak of bird flu in the U.S. in 2022.
- High egg prices are likely feeding into the costs of some other foods that use eggs as a key ingredient, economists said.
- That might include mayonnaise, baked goods and a host of other items.
- Quantifying eggs’ impact is difficult. But ingredients generally represent a small share of the prices consumers pay at the store.Consumers are paying record prices for eggs. But beyond the inflated sticker price for a dozen eggs, there’s also a hidden expense to the soaring costs.
Elevated egg prices are trickling into food items across the grocery store — namely those in which eggs are a main ingredient, which might be anything from mayonnaise to baked goods like cookies and cake, according to food economists.
But eggs are an additive in a long list of other foods: Egg noodles, certain kinds of bread, custards, puddings, breaded or battered meat and vegetables, salad dressings, tartar sauce, marshmallows and some soup broths, for example.
The impact of egg prices on other groceries is tough to quantify — but they’ve at least contributed to overall food inflation
Why egg prices are so high
A dozen large Grade A eggs cost consumers $4.25 in December, on average — a record high and more than double the $1.79 from a year earlier, according to monthly U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
The average price for all types of eggs ballooned 60% in 2022, according to the consumer price index. Their prices rose faster than almost any other good or service, in a year characterized by historically high inflation.
For context, grocery prices as a whole rose 12% in 2022 — about five times slower than those of eggs. Restaurant meals jumped about 8%. Food inflation peaked in August at a rate unseen since the late 1970s.
Higher egg prices are largely the result of a deadly outbreak of bird flu in the U.S., economists said.
The disease — known as highly pathogenic avian influenza — killed a record number of birds. Outbreaks, which usually dissipate by summer, continued into the second half of the year and coincided with peak seasonal consumer demand for eggs around the winter holidays.
in recent months, economists said.
“It’s part of why prices are higher across all kinds of foods,” said David Anderson, a professor and food economist in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University.
Eggs are likely also propping up the costs of dining out, to the extent restaurants use eggs as an ingredient in their dishes, Anderson said.
Since February 2022, bird flu killed more than 44 million hens in commercial table-egg-laying flocks, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The impact of bird flu on a farm can persist for months. Farms generally must cull their flocks to prevent disease spread, then sanitize and restock their facilities. Additionally, it takes four to five months for a young hen to reach peak egg productivity, the USDA said.
This process played out nationwide, significantly disrupting egg production and leading to higher prices.
“It’s an acute supply shock,” David Ortega, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics at Michigan State University, said of bird flu.
Wholesale prices have fallen by over 50% from their December peak, but it takes a while for those price dynamics to reach consumers.
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