News Analysis
If there’s a poster child for last year’s historic inflation, it ought to be an egg. The valuable source of nutrients has never been pricier.
In December, a dozen eggs cost $4.25 on average, up from less than $1.80 a year prior, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The good news is, the prices are expected to drop. The bad news is, they are unlikely to drop back to pre-2022 levels.
There are several reasons why.
Bird Flu
Last year was marked by outbreaks of avian influenza that prompted mass culling of poultry, especially in March and April when farmers had to cull over 27 million egg-laying hens. With further losses over the September–December period, the flu cost egg farmers over 43 million birds last year—more than 13 percent of the country’s egg-laying flock….