Egg Prices See New Dramatic Shift In Price

After months of sustained sticker shock, shoppers will be relieved to notice that the price of eggs is finally falling.

In April, the average retail price for eggs dropped to $5.12 a dozen, down from more than a dollar in March, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service.

While wholesale prices began falling in mid-March, the department says retail prices tend to lag behind wholesale prices.

"When wholesale prices spike, retailers occasionally and temporarily have sold eggs at a loss. As wholesale prices retreat, retail prices are slower to decline and often remain elevated for a longer period," according to the report.

Whole prices hit a nationwide high of $8.20 per dozen in February. By April, as seasonal egg demand declined, the monthly average wholesale price dropped to $3.74 per dozen, the report details.

The seemingly unrelenting surge beguiled consumers for months as a wave of highly contagious avian influenza (bird flu) gripped the nation from mid-October of last year through early March.

The phenomenon has resulted in the deaths of 50.7 million egg-laying hens just since last year. Since the losses coincided with the winter holidays, when egg demand is at its height, retail prices skyrocketed in the face of scarcity, according to USDA.

Normally, there are about 300 million laying hens nationwide that keep up with egg demand.

Since avian flu quickly kills birds within 24 to 48 hours, euthanasia is considered the most humane and effective way to keep the spread at bay, Richard Blatchford, Associate Specialist of Cooperative Extension at the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, previously told Patch.

In February, reports of bird flu sickening and killing domestic cats further alarmed the nation. At the time, Blatchford told Patch the country was in "unknown territory."

And although egg prices have dropped for now, bird flu is still spreading. On Monday, Arizona's Department of Agriculture announced that a third commercial farm tested positive for bird flu.

At the same time, Hickman's Egg Ranch has been euthanizing birds at a third farm amid the spreading disease. Hickman's is the largest egg producer in Arizona and is one of the top 20 egg providers in the nation, according to a Monday report from FOX10.

Within the last few weeks, the ranch's properties have lost 95 percent of their chickens to bird flu, FOX10 reported.

The U.S. experienced its last significant bird flu outbreak in 2015, which was mostly contained in the Midwest. That year, prices did rise slightly as birds were euthanized.

But Blatchford says that outbreak pales in comparison to the one that's been plaguing the U.S. since 2022.

"You know, since this outbreak started in February of 2022, we've lost 170 million birds and that's just got to stop," President and CEO of Hickman's Egg Ranch, Glenn Hickman, told FOX10 on Monday.