When will egg prices drop? Here is what experts predict

If you have seen the price of eggs in recent weeks, you have probably experienced a sticker shock. The national average price for a dozen eggs in December 2024 was $ 4.15, and the cost should not drop soon. What’s going on?

There is a serious shortage of eggs due to an influenza epidemic in progress, which forced farmers to kill millions of hens. The low offer means that customers end up paying a little more than usual at the supermarket. In some parts of the United States, eggs are now more than double what they did six months ago.

The drop in the overtime supplies of the bird flu leads to empty shelves in supermarkets, and some grocery stores have started to limit the amount of eggs that customers are allowed to buy.

Although you can find an egg substitute in many cases, even if you cook, it can always be frustrating to do without this basic food. We will explain the impact of bird flu on egg supplies and discuss when you could start to see the price of eggs drop.

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When do experts think that egg prices will drop?

There are too many unknown factors for experts to predict precisely when egg prices will drop. A severe winter time has been a cause of the recent price increase, but it seems that it is the bird flu which causes the overall price of prices. The most recent USDA egg market report, published on January 24, shows that the average price of a dozen eggs in California reached $ 8.76. California was one of the states hardly struck by the bird flu.

“Unless you can plan the price of the bird flu of chickens – and I cannot – I don’t see how you can provide the price of eggs.” said Robert Fry, chief economist of Robert Fry Economics.

However, other experts believe that there could be a certain relief to come.

“If the bird flu epidemic does not become considerably worse, I expect the prices of eggs to fall backwards,” explains David A. Anderson, professor of economics and business at the Center College of Danville, Kentucky. “Over time, destroyed hen populations will be replaced, new egg sources will appear in response to high prices, and consumers with low to moderate preferences for egg products will adapt to substitutes, especially In the highest places of eggs. These increases in supply and the drop in demand will lead to a drop in prices. “”

The USDA has planned that egg prices are starting to return to normal by April 2025. According to its monthly report on the offer and estimates of the world agricultural offer, the price will reveal $ 2.50 per dozen In the second quarter of 2025 and down $ 2.10 in the third quarter. However, eggs are likely to stay expensive throughout winter, and prices could still increase if the case of bird flu continue to spread.

How does the bird flu affect the price of eggs?

This increase in egg prices has been driven by a virulent bird flu -end strain which caused 20 million laying chickens during the last quarter of 2024.

According to the American department of agriculture, the bird flu has resulted in nearly 100 million chickens, turkeys and other poultry since the beginning of 2022. Most of the birds slaughtered to stop the epidemic have been weighted chickens, causing the price of eggs soaring and an availability to fall.

The Pantry & Larder website has a page entitled Eggsisseny which follows the price of a dozen eggs in Walmart stores nationally.

Pantry and pantry / screenshot by CNET

The bird flu is caused by type A avian type A viruseswhich spreads in savage and can infect other wild birds, domestic poultry and other animals. Although the bird flu rarely infects humans, the current epidemic is responsible for 67 human cases in the United States and a death, when writing this day.

What happened in 2015 when the prices of eggs made the flu with birds?

This is not the first time that bird flu has caused a considerably increase in egg prices. From the end of 2014 to June 2015, an influenza pandemic prior to the United States caused almost double the price of eggs.

According to the USDA, more than 50 million chickens were killed by the flip -in birds or euthanized during these seven months, which made the price of a dozen large eggs on the New York market of 1, $ 29 in April 2015 at $ 2.61 in August. This price did not go back to its old average before the beginning of 2016.

The USDA called the 2014-2015 bird flu epidemic “the largest poultry health disaster in American history”, but the current epidemic of the bird flu which started in 2022 is even more important – more of 13 million chickens have been assigned in the last 30 days alone.