According to Trading Economics, egg prices have dropped $2.78/dozen since the beginning of 2025. January through early March saw skyrocketing egg prices due to the culling of hens to prevent the spread of avian flu. However, since eggs reached a high of $8.07/dozen on March 4, the price has fallen to $3.03/dozen, a drop of over $4/dozen.
This is a great relief to Americans, who saw major price increases as a worry point for the economy. Some consumers may not see the change in price for at least 1-2 weeks, because retailers are still selling eggs that were purchased at the high point of $8/dozen. Consumers may have to wait until late March or early April before their grocery bills are impacted by the good news.
Where It All Started
2024 led to heightened fears of the spread of avian flu (H5NI), which led to the killing of millions of hens later in the year. Since March of 2024, there were 64 cases of H5NI in the United States, according to the CDC. After fears of the flu spreading, the culling of hens created a shortage of supply, as can be seen by the skyrocketing prices of eggs in October and November.
The USDA announced in late February that it invested $1 billion to fight avian flu and reduce egg prices. The “five-pronged approach” included expanding and increasing safety measures to farms to minimize flu cases, improving the infrastructure of “biosecurity audits” and deploying epidemiologists to these audits. The other four steps include a speedy recovery of the hen population, cutting regulations for farmers, investing funds in vaccines for avian flu, and improving trade conditions
So far, the billion-dollar plan seems to be working, but the recovery of the hen population, and the thereby increased supply of eggs may have natural positive effects on the prices. The lowering of prices to eggs could be a strong indicator of inflation for the U.S. economy, as inflation was down 0.3% in February, even though egg prices skyrocketed over 58% in the same month. For the next few weeks, we’ll keep an eye out on inflation and prices, but as of today, things seem to heading in the right direction.
