Life News
US egg prices crash before Easter: from over $9 a dozen to about $2 as hens return
Egg prices in the US have fallen sharply a year after bird flu wiped out tens of millions of laying hens. NPR reported on 11 March that supermarket egg prices dropped 42% over the past year, nearly $2 a dozen, while prices paid to farmers fell more than 90%. About 9 million more hens are laying eggs than a year earlier.
“There's never been a better time to buy eggs.” — Emily Metz, American Egg Board, via NPR
On 24 February Texas station KBTX reported Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing a 34% fall over the year, the steepest drop of any item the government tracks. Some Americans once paid more than $9 a dozen, and Grade A large eggs now cost about $2. Prices fell 7% from December to January alone. Gregory Archer of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension summed up the recovery as “the birds are back”.
How each outlet framed it
- NPR — farm and shop together: livestock economist David Anderson called farm prices “extremely low”, and a farmer who lost 80% of his flock in 2022 described the outbreaks as traumatic. New cases last month hit Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina.
- KBTX — a local expert's warning that cheap eggs may not last, because demand always climbs before Easter.
Where the numbers differ: NPR's 42% and KBTX's 34% measure different things at different times: NPR describes supermarket prices by early March, while KBTX uses the official consumer price index for January. Both point the same way, but the gap shows how fast prices were still falling.
What we don't know yet: Whether new bird flu outbreaks or Easter demand will push prices back up.