While the great egg price hike of 2025 might not garner the same number of headlines as the great toilet paper shortage of 2020, it has nonetheless been a topic of conversation and cause for consternation across the country.
Egg prices have been sky-high for most of the last year; in January 2025, a dozen eggs cost around $4.90, almost double the cost from a year earlier. Just two months later, in March, the average price of a dozen eggs had jumped by 27% to $6.20, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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The current round of the devastating outbreak began in 2022, but it really started to spread in March 2024. This outbreak has infected more than 167 million birds across 17 states.
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Eggs have been in such short supply and high demand that some stores like Costco, Trader Joe’s, and Whole Foods are even limiting the number of eggs customers can buy. Check-out clerks are expected to enforce store policy. Breakfast restaurants like Waffle House and Denny’s have also added a surcharge to menu items that contain eggs.
Bird flu has been devastating chicken farmers for the last year. Spring will bring some relief and should also bring down prices for consumers.
Image source: Shutterstock
Spring season has reduced the spread of the devastating bird flu
Things are slowly getting better. In January the World Health Organization reported 85 outbreaks at chicken farms across the country.
In March there were just 12.
Evidently the virus has a harder time thriving in warm weather, so as temperatures rise, the virus weakens. Still, it will take many months for farmers to rebuild their flocks.
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In the meantime, complaints of price-gouging have emerged, especially in New York, where a dozen eggs costs more than $10 in some locations.
The prices even caught the attention of the New York Attorney General’s Office, which issued a warning to poultry businesses about price gouging. The AG declared eggs an essential grocery staple and said New Yorkers should not be forced to pay such high prices to feed their families. “The bird flu is affecting poultry farms and causing a national shortage, but this should not be an excuse for businesses to dramatically raise prices,” said the AG’s statement.
More chocolate, fewer hard-boiled eggs
Egg prices should come down soon, since farms are reporting fewer avian flu outbreaks. It may, however, be too little, too late for Easter egg hunts. And customers should not expect to see promotions on eggs anytime soon.
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Wholesale prices didn’t start to come down until mid-March, which means grocery stores are still selling inventory they purchased when prices were at their highest, says University of Arkansas Agricultural Economist Jada Thompson.
Thompson also believes that until there is a vaccine, the bird flu virus is just going to wax and wane seasonally, affecting the marketplace off and on.
At Easter egg hunts this weekend, odds are that children everywhere will be thrilled to fill their baskets with more chocolate eggs and jelly beans and fewer hard-boiled eggs.
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