As consumers celebrate a decrease in egg prices, many are asking if the prices will continue to fall in coming months
Last month, the price of eggs fell from $6.23 in March to $5.12 in April
The price of the breakfast staple began to rise after a rise in the bird flu leading to the euthenasia of millions of infected birds
Egg connoisseurs can finally catch a break as the cost of eggs drops.
The breakfast staple stands out among the increase in supermarket costs over the last year with an index increase of over 43%, according to a report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In April, the BLS reports a 12.7% decrease in the cost of eggs, a substantial difference after the rise in recent months.
“The meats, poultry, fish, and eggs index rose 7.0 percent over the last 12 months as the eggs index increased 49.3 percent,” the report reads.
The report shows an overall decrease in the price of food. In April food prices dropped 1% after rising 4% in March, the BLS reports. Over the last month the price of food at home dropped 4% which is the largest reported decrease since September 2020.
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A price chart provided by BLS shows the variation in the price of a dozen Grade A eggs over the past four months. March proved to present the highest grocery prices for eggs so far this year. The chart indicated that the price of eggs in March to April dropped from $6.23 to $5.12. Consumers can only hope that this decrease will only continue over the coming months.
“Considering that we were at record level prices just a couple of months ago, I think this is a pretty big move,” Bernt Nelson, an economist at the American Farm Bureau Federation, told USA Today about the recent decrease in prices. “We can’t say that it’ll necessarily stay this way, but for the near term, this is great.”
The last reported price drop shown on the chart dates back to October 2024, when the price of a dozen Grade A eggs fell from $3.82 in Sept. to $3.37 in Oct.
Since May 9, the national average retail ad price in conventional large white eggs have decreased 17%, according to a separate report conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The price in early May is listed as $3.99 a decrease in price when compared to mid April when the average price was $4.28.
Understandably, shoppers’ frustrations have grown by the elevated price of eggs over the past months. In December of 2024, the price for a dozen eggs was $4.15 in just one month it increased to $4.95, a BLS chart reports.
An increase in bird flu is another major contributor to the increase in prices. The USDA report shows the bird flu outbreak led to the depopulation of over 31 million birds that range from conventional caged systems to cage-free systems and even organic.
Since the American Farm Bureau Federation and USDA formed a collaboration to implement biosecurity that would prevent the spread of the bird flu, Nelson said he believes these efforts are to thank for the recent decrease in egg prices, USA Today reports.
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In a statement released Tuesday, May 13, White House Spokesperson Kush Desai celebrated the decrease in egg prices.
“The CPI report shows that the American people are experiencing real economic relief: grocery, gas, and egg prices are down, while real wages are up,” Desai said in the statement. “President Trump’s America First policies created a historic economy in his first term, and he’s laying the groundwork to repeat the success in his second term.”
However, Nelson says it will take farmers time to recover from the bird flu outbreak.
“If things stay calm like they are now, we have a relatively low case load and that stronger biosecurity does its job and starts showing some success, we might see egg prices stay down,” Nelson told USA Today.
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