Bird flu the cause of high egg prices, says USDA

Egg prices at the grocery store were elevated throughout 2022 due to outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) among egg-laying hens, said USDA economists. “Lower-than-usual shell egg inventories near the end of the year, combined with increased demand stemming from the holiday baking season, resulted in several successive weeks of record-high egg prices.”

Wholesale egg prices were expected to decline as the industry rebuilds its hen inventory, said the Economic Research Service. Prices, which were 210% higher in the week leading up to Christmas than during the same period in 2021, fell in the final week of 2022.

Bird flu outbreaks began last February, with two large waves of losses — the first from February to June and the second from September to December. By the end of 2022, more than 43 million laying hens had died from the viral disease and from cullings of flocks to prevent its spread. At latest count, 57.8 million birds, mostly laying hens and turkeys in domestic flocks, had died from bird flu.

Because of the recurrent outbreaks, U.S. egg inventories were 29% smaller in late December than they were the start of the year.