Bird flu outbreak in U.S. sends egg prices soaring amid holiday baking season

A surge in holiday baking demand and the ongoing bird flu outbreak are pushing egg prices higher, although they remain below the peak levels seen two years ago.

Egg prices are rising once more as a lingering outbreak of bird flu coincides with the high demand of the holiday baking season.

But prices are still far from the recent peak they reached almost two years ago. And the American Egg Board, a trade group, says egg shortages at grocery stores have been isolated and temporary so far.

“Those are being rapidly corrected, sometimes within a day,” said Emily Metz, the Egg Board’s president and chief executive officer.

The average price for a dozen eggs in U.S. cities was $3.37 in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was down slightly from September, and down significantly from January 2023, when the average price soared to $4.82. But it was up 63 per cent from October 2023, when a dozen eggs cost an average of $2.07.

Sometimes, supermarkets may be to blame for price spikes. During testimony in August in the Federal Trade Commission’s case seeking to block Kroger’s merger with Albertsons, Kroger’s senior director for pricing acknowledged that the company has raised the cost of milk and eggs beyond the levels of inflation.

But there are other factors behind the price increases. Metz said the egg industry sees its highest demand in November and December, for example.

“You can’t have your holiday baking, your pumpkin pie, your stuffing, without eggs,” she said.

Avian influenza is another big reason for the higher prices. The current bird flu outbreak that began in February 2022 has led to the slaughter of more than 111 million birds, mostly egg-laying chickens. Anytime the virus is found, every bird on a farm is killed to limit the spread of the disease.