U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins warned that the price of eggs will remain elevated, especially as we near the holidays that heavily rely on the product, Easter and Passover.
Rollins, addressing reporters at the White House on Tuesday, said prices may “inch back up”
“We’re going into the Easter season. This is always the highest price for eggs,” said Rollins, who outlined a $1 billion “five-pronged” strategy to address the egg crisis.
Last month, Rollins announced her plan to curb the growing number of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), or bird flu, outbreaks that began in 2022 and have since decimated flocks around the country and created a significant shortage in the U.S. egg supply.
The severity of the issue caused antitrust enforcers with the Justice Department to look into the cause of rising prices, including whether egg producers have conspired to artificially inflate them by holding back supply, sources told The Wall Street Journal.
FARMERS REACT TO TRUMP’S PLAN TO COMBAT EGG CRISIS
The government agency plans to invest an additional $500 million into biosecurity measures, $400 million in financial relief for affected farmers and $100 million for vaccine research. The department is also looking to find way to reduce regulatory burdens and explore temporary import options.
While farmers told FOX Business that this is a critical step in solving this crisis, they say it will take time to see any major impact. Companies are still imposing purchasing limits on products as shelves remain empty and prices are elevated. Those prices, reaching new records in 2025, aren’t going to ease anytime soon, either.
Bernt Nelson, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Foundation, said Tuesday that the compounding effects of inflation and bird flu caused egg prices to shoot up more than 350% per dozen compared to this time last year.
“Unlike other products, in many applications such as baking, eggs don’t have good substitutes,” Nelson said. “They are also a healthy – and typically the most affordable – source of protein, which makes them desirable even if prices go up. This relatively unchanging demand for eggs means that supply factors can have a big impact on egg prices.”
In February, egg prices surged XYZ, according to the Labor Department’s consumer price index.
The outbreaks have affected over 166 million birds, including 127 million egg-laying birds, since 2022, leading to an average loss of 42.3 million egg layers per year, Nelson said. That’s equivalent to about 11% of the 5-year average annual layer inventory of 383 million hens since the outbreak began, according to Nelson.
In February alone, about 12 million birds, mostly layers, were lost, bringing the total number of birds affected so far in 2025 to over 35 million and driving egg prices even higher.
Nelson said it can take up to a year for a farm to complete cleaning and raise new chicks to the point where they are ready to lay eggs.
“This indemnity does not cover costs during the time the farm goes without income. On top of the economic loss, the death of an entire flock, sometimes millions of birds, from avian influenza is a traumatic experience for farm families,” he added.
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