The latest wholesale data from Urner Barry shows egg prices continuing to soar to new record highs amid an ongoing and devastating avian influenza outbreak straining the nation's egg-producing hen capacity. For ZeroHedge readers, it might be time to consider buying—or even building—a backyard chicken coop ahead of spring, as the nationwide egg shortage is poised to worsen.
Monday's print of the Urner Barry Egg Index EBP shows prices jumped to $6.44 per dozen, a new record high and more than $1 above from two weeks ago when we informed readers about the "blue-sky breakout" in wholesale prices.
According to the USDA's bird flu dashboard, 22.73 million birds across the Lower 48 have been infected by avian influenza over the last 30 days.
Bloomberg was out with a note on Tuesday about the continuing bird flu wreaking havoc on the nation's egg-laying hen population, citing USDA data showing wholesale prices in the Midwest surged to new record highs.
Egg prices have broken record after record as bird flu spreads across the country, killing millions of chickens. A dozen large eggs in the Midwest now cost an average of $7.08 wholesale, about seven times the price just two years ago, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Some 104 million egg-laying hens have been lost since the outbreak started in 2022, with 29 million killed since October, according farmer group United Egg Producers. That's resulted in shortages at grocery stores at a time when shoppers just keep on buying more.
Just wow.
More from the media outlet:
In New York City, prices reached as high as $11.99 for a dozen cage-free eggs at Whole Foods Inc. The national retailer placed a three-carton purchase limit on customers at some locations in the city. Customers in Nassau County on Long Island found supplies of Vital Farms pasture-raised eggs and Nellie's free range ones sold out at Whole Foods online in the past week. Organic eggs have been in short supply too. Over the weekend, refrigerated shelves were almost completely bare at a ShopRite in Brooklyn. The few crates left were priced at about $1 per egg. A nearby Costco was out of everything except quail eggs, according to grocery delivery app Instacart, and a Wegmans had run out of some of its store brands.
'Eggflation' doesn't stop at the grocery store. American restaurants are also being impacted: Waffle House has added a 50 cent per egg surcharge across all menus. The causal diner chain wrote in a press release:
"The continuing egg shortage caused by HPAI (bird flu) has caused a dramatic increase in egg prices. Customers and restaurants are being forced to make difficult decisions."
Google Trends "egg shortage" just spiked to the same level shortages emerged in the first round of the bird flu a couple of years back:
It's time to get those chicken coops.