U.S. egg crisis deepens as price forecast to soar, U.S. government unveils response

SACRAMENTO, the United States, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Egg prices in the United States have hit record highs, reaching an average of 8.11 U.S. dollars per dozen as of Wednesday, a 53 percent increase from a year earlier, as a devastating bird flu outbreak continues to decimate the country's egg-laying hen population.

The current highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak, which began in 2022, has forced farmers to kill approximately 166 million laying hens over the past three years, according to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. The crisis intensified in early 2025, with about 18.8 million commercial egg layers affected by HPAI in January alone -- the highest monthly total since the outbreak began.

"Egg prices are skyrocketing, and it isn't simply a matter of inflation," Rollins wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) projects more pain ahead for consumers. In its February Food Price Outlook, the agency predicts egg prices will increase by 41.1 percent in 2025, with a prediction interval ranging from 15.0 percent to 74.9 percent.

This drastic price surge is having ripple effects across the food industry. Restaurant chain Waffle House has implemented a 50-cent surcharge per egg, while retailers like Costco and Trader Joe's have begun limiting egg purchases per customer.

Consumers in high-cost regions like New York and California are experiencing even steeper prices, with some paying as much as 9 dollars or more for a dozen eggs, according to think tank Open Markets Institute.

The farm-level impact is even more volatile, with wholesale egg prices experiencing a 31.4 percent increase between December 2024 and January 2025 alone. Farm-level egg prices in January 2025 were a staggering 183.7 percent higher than in January 2024, according to USDA data.

The Donald Trump administration announced a five-point strategy on Wednesday to combat the egg crisis, pledging up to 1 billion U.S. dollars in relief measures.

Rollins' plan includes dedicating 500 million dollars to enhance biosecurity measures at poultry farms, providing 400 million dollars in financial relief to affected farmers, and allocating 100 million dollars for vaccine research.

The strategy also aims to reduce regulatory burdens on producers, including examining "overly prescriptive state laws" like California's Proposition 12 while exploring temporary egg imports that meet U.S. safety standards to reduce costs in the short term.

A key component of the administration's strategy involves sourcing eggs from overseas markets. Türkiye has emerged as the primary supplier, with the Egg Producers Central Union in Türkiye announcing plans to export 420 million eggs to the United States this year, according to CNN. This represents a nearly six-fold increase from the 71 million eggs imported from Türkiye in 2024.

"Bird flu is the main reason for increasing export capacity," said Ibrahim Afyon, chairman of the Egg Producers Central Union in Türkiye, as quoted by CNN.

The USDA confirmed it is in talks with several other countries to secure additional egg imports as part of its short-term solution to the crisis. However, Rollins emphasized in her op-ed that the United States will "proceed with imports only if the eggs meet stringent U.S. safety standards and if we determine that doing so won't jeopardize American farmers' access to markets in the future."

Despite these efforts, agricultural economists question whether imports will significantly impact prices. Bruce Babcock, an agricultural economist from the University of California, Riverside, told The New York Times that the United States would need to import "more like a billion eggs" to lower prices meaningfully.

The 420 million eggs Türkiye plans to export represent roughly 1.5 days of U.S. production, which averages about 7.5 billion dozen eggs per year, according to the American Egg Board.

Critics have pointed to the administration's handling of the crisis as potentially worsening the situation. The Trump administration's recent mass layoffs at federal agencies, including the USDA, have disrupted government tracking, testing, and messaging for avian flu.

"If ever there was a time when it was absolutely critical to not infuse more chaos into the system, this is it," Rebecca Carriere Christofferson, an associate professor of pathobiological studies at the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine, told CNN.

Earlier in February, the USDA had to revoke termination letters it sent to workers supporting the bird flu response.

Some industry observers argue that the problem extends beyond the current administration to broader structural issues in the U.S. food system. The Open Markets Institute points to industry consolidation as exacerbating both the spread of disease and price volatility. ■