Egg prices rose more than 15% from December to January, marking the largest increase in 10 years as bird flu hurts the nation’s poultry supply and some grocery chains limit egg purchases—leading President Donald Trump’s Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to announce an investment of “up to $1 billion to curb this crisis and make eggs affordable again.”
Eggs are displayed for sale in a Manhattan grocery store on February 25, 2025 in New York City. The ... [+]
Rollins penned an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal in which she announced the $1 billion investment, $500 million of which will go to helping poultry producers “implement gold-standard biosecurity measures,” with $400 million being used as additional financial relief to farmers whose flocks have been impacted and $100 million being used to research the use of vaccines and therapeutics for laying chickens.
Rollins also said the Department of Agriculture will work to remove “unnecessary regulatory burdens on egg producers where possible” and explore “temporary import options” to address the high prices in the short term—adding that while the strategy “won’t erase the problem overnight,” the USDA is “confident that it will restore stability to the egg market over the next three to six months.”
Denny’s confirmed to Bloomberg some of its restaurants would temporarily add a surcharge to dishes with eggs because of the supply crunch and increased prices of eggs across the country, though it declined to comment on which locations will have the fee and said fees will vary by region and location; Denny’s did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment.
An order from the Nevada Department of Agriculture took effect suspending the state’s cage-free egg law that passed in 2021, meaning eggs “sourced from any egg producer meeting food-safety guidelines, regardless of whether the eggs originated from hens in a cage-free housing system” can be sold in the state.
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo approved a bill allowing the state to temporarily suspend cage-free egg laws in an effort to address high egg prices and the strain on supply.
Egg prices increased 15.2% from December to January, according to the Consumer Price Index, and the average cost of one dozen Grade A large eggs in December across the U.S. was $4.95—up slightly from $4.15 in December.
Trader Joe’s confirmed to the Associated Press it was limiting egg purchases nationwide to one dozen per customer, per day, in an effort “to ensure that as many of our customers who need eggs are able to purchase them.”
On Monday, breakfast chain Waffle House implemented a $0.50 surcharge per egg, citing the “dramatic increase in egg prices” due to bird flu and saying “consumers and restaurants are being forced to make difficult decisions.”
In a statement to Forbes, Waffle House said it will continuously monitor egg prices and “will adjust or remove the surcharge as market conditions allow,” but that it “cannot predict how long this shortage will last.”
Retail egg prices will “continue to experience volatile month-to-month changes” throughout the year and are expected to increase a total of 20.3%, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in its 2025 food price outlook.
The CPI released for December showed egg prices increased more than 8% from November to December 2024—with the average cost of one dozen Grade A large eggs at $4.15—and the price was 36.8% higher than the previous December.
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53%. That’s how much higher egg prices were in January 2025 than the previous January, according to the Consumer Price Index released Feb. 12.
How much egg prices rise from January to February. The next Consumer Price Index will be released on March 12 and will detail how average egg prices nationwide have changed over the last month.
In addition to Trader Joe’s, grocery chains including Walmart and Sam’s Club have implemented nationwide restrictions on egg purchases, NBC News reported. Walmart told NBC it was restricting purchases of 60-count cartons to two per purchase, but is not restricting smaller quantities of eggs, and Sam’s Club is allowing customers to buy two cartons of each brand of eggs. Some Kroger, Costco, Whole Foods and Aldi stores are limiting egg purchases dependent on locations, as well.
Ahead of November’s presidential election in which Trump defeated then-Vice President Kamala Harris, Republicans made inflation and how costs had risen under then-President Joe Biden a focal point. Voters largely trusted Trump over Harris to handle the economy, and inflation was a primary issue for many voters: The Associated Press reported about 9 in 10 voters “were very or somewhat concerned about the cost of groceries” and many were still hurting from when inflation hit a four-decade high in mid-2022. When he was campaigning, Trump promised he would end the “inflation nightmare” and bring prices down “very quickly,” though economists warned Trump’s plans of imposing tariffs and deporting workers would not help lower costs for Americans. When asked on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Jan. 26 whether grocery prices would come down, Vice President JD Vance said “prices are going to come down, but it's going to take a little bit of time.” Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have already jumped on Trump and Vance for not yet lowering prices, writing in a letter to the president on Jan. 26 that he “repeatedly promised” to “lower food prices ‘immediately’ if elected president,” but instead he has “focused on mass deportations and pardoning January 6 attackers,” NBC News reported. Trump’s team pushed back on the criticism and said his actions to “unleash American energy” will drive costs for American families down nationwide.
Bird flu refers to the disease caused when an animal or person is infected with avian flu Type A viruses, though it is typically spread between birds and not people. HPAI viruses related to the ongoing outbreaks were first detected in wild aquatic birds, commercial poultry and backyard flocks of poultry in the U.S. beginning in January 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The early 2022 detections were the first time the viruses were found in the U.S. since 2016. Since 2022, every state has been affected by the illness and there have been more than 1,464 poultry outbreaks reported to the CDC. The virus spreads through the mucous, saliva or poop of infected animals.
Bird flu is impacting dairy and poultry throughout the U.S., though some areas have more cases. As of Jan. 24, there were eight bird flu outbreaks across California, North Carolina, Ohio, Missouri and Indiana that had resulted in the loss of 8.3 million birds. That loss accounted for 3.6% of the conventional caged layer flock and 1.5% of the non-organic cage-free flock, according to the USDA’s Egg Market Overview.
Officials reported the new strain of bird flu was found in a commercial duck meat farm in Merced County, California, in late November according to a report filed with the World Organization for Animal Health this week. More than 118,000 birds were killed and disposed of, according to the report. It’s the first time the strain was detected in the U.S. The Washington Post reported the strain isn’t a grave threat to humans now, but scientists worry the spread of multiple bird flu strains along with other illnesses could produce a version that spreads more easily person-to-person.
Yes, though it’s not too common. People who get bird flu usually get it through “direct unprotected contact … with infected birds or other infected animals,” the CDC said. Most human cases in the U.S. have been mild and there has been no person-to-person spread traced here, but the U.S. did record its first severe human case of bird flu in Louisiana in December, and the patient later died.
Though bird flu taking out thousands of egg-laying hens is greatly impacting the price of eggs, it’s not seeming to make a big difference on the price of chicken. The cost of chicken was up just 1.2% year-over-year, and just 0.3% from November to December.
A bird flu variant has been spreading through cattle and livestock in the U.S., as well, since April, when the Food and Drug Administration said some samples of pasteurized milk had remnants of H5N1. The outbreak among cattle led to officials in California declaring a state of emergency and suspending the sale of raw milk from a leading raw farm because bird flu was detected in its samples.
Egg prices are soaring. Don't expect that to change anytime soon (Associated Press)
First Bird Flu Death Reported In US (Forbes)
Democrats slam Trump for not making good on promise to ‘immediately’ lower food prices (NBC News)