If you’ve been patiently holding off on all of the quiche recipes that you want to make because of the sky-high price of eggs, relief is finally on the way, you’ll just have to wait a bit longer. Soaring egg prices have been the food story of the year so far, with a huge outbreak of bird flu that killed 30 million egg laying birds driving down supply. The wholesale cost of a dozen eggs got all the way to $8 this past February, more than 50% higher than prices got during the worst of the post-pandemic inflation episode. It even got so bad that popular breakfast chains were adding surcharges to egg dishes. But something has happened over the past month that you may not have noticed: Those prices actually started lowering in March.
According to the newest USDA report, the wholesale price of eggs has fallen all the way back down to an average of $3 a dozen, you just haven’t seen that change hit your wallet yet. Why? It’s all about inventory. Eggs have a shelf-life of around a month, so many of the eggs at your grocery store were still purchased while prices were high, and stores will want to sell through that inventory at higher prices before selling the new, cheaper eggs. So while more reasonable egg prices are on the horizon, you may not see a difference locally for another couple of weeks.
Dropping wholesale egg prices can take up to a month to be reflected in stores
So why are egg prices finally falling? It’s a combination of factors. The most important is that the outbreak of bird flu has seemingly been contained. Just 2.1 million new birds were reportedly affected in March, down from 23 million in January (per CNN). The other side is demand. According to market research from Clarify Capital, 34% of Americans stopped buying eggs entirely, and 61% say they have limited their egg consumption. That’s reflected in the market reports from the USDA, which show an almost 30% decrease in sales from the beginning of the year. Most surveyed said $5 per dozen was the baseline where they would start buying eggs again, and based on the wholesale prices, the country should hopefully be crossing that threshold within the next few weeks. So yes, despite the delay, you should be able to start cooking all of your favorite egg dishes again.
But while lower prices should be coming, don’t be certain that they will be getting all the way back to normal right away. Retailers may be hesitant to fully drop prices out of fear of another bird flu spike, and future supply fluctuations could be coming. The nation is also heading into the Easter season, one of the times of highest demand for eggs. So while you should see cheaper eggs soon, it may take an extended period of steady supply to see a full return to what you expect.
