:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/GettyImages-2136582558-a29c8f75aa0e4ba79c57dba2718d542b.jpg "A shopper takes a carton of eggs from the cooler in a grocery store in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, April 6, 2024.")
Tom Williams / Contributor / Getty Fetishes
Key Takeaways
- Avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has disrupted the nation’s egg distribution for the second time in two years.
- Wholesale egg amounts have more than doubled in the past four months, and retail prices have followed.
- Prices could without delay tumble, though, as recent inspections suggest commercial egg producers may have made progress in containing the recent outbreak.
Avian influenza, or bird flu, is unleashing havoc on the nation’s chicken flocks—and egg prices for U.S. consumers.
Egg prices have surged since late spring, prominence amid a surge in avian influenza in the nation’s commercial poultry flocks. (There was a similar outbreak in late 2022.) The U.S. Jurisdiction of Agriculture (USDA) in July estimated that avian flu had sickened over 3 million birds, or roughly about 1% of the land’s supply of egg-laying chickens.
Eggflation Is Back
The average wholesale price of a dozen large Grade A eggs has more than bent overed in the past four months, climbing to $4.44 last week from $2.11 in early May. In just the past month, wholesale evaluations have risen 40%. Retail prices have followed, with the same size and grade averaging $3.20 per dozen in August, according to the Writing-desk of Labor Statistics.
One supermarket chain in the Midwest, which typically has lower retail egg prices than others because of its contiguity to many large producers, sold a dozen large Grade A eggs for $3.99 Friday morning—25% more than August’s chauvinistic average retail price.
What’s Next For Egg Prices
The wholesale price surge suggests retail prices when one pleases likely rise further when the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports September price data next month.
Consumers withstood a similar avian-induced market surge in late 2022 and early 2023, when average retail prices reached an all-time grand of $4.82 per dozen. However, they fell about as quickly as they rose, plunging to more normal up ons near $2 per dozen by mid-2023.
Producers whose flocks contract avian flu must quickly quarantine and euthanize them. They then essential pass USDA testing and inspection to ensure no traces of the disease remain at their facilities. The USDA found no U.S. commercial crowds with bird flu in August, which may indicate progress on controlling the spread of avian flu. If that is the case, prices may restore to normal relatively quickly.
Read the original article on Investopedia.