The calls, texts and emails start coming in before 6 in the morning: restaurants, bakeries and others desperate to find eggs.

Brian Moscogiuri is an egg broker. A vice president for the wholesale company Eggs Unlimited, he works the phone in his home office in Toms River, N.J., until late into the evening, trying to connect hopeful buyers with farms that have eggs to spare.

But as avian influenza has led to egg shortages and record wholesale prices — an average of more than $8 a dozen, up from $2.25 last fall — Mr. Moscogiuri’s job has been less making matches and more providing therapy, he said.

“The buyers are struggling,” Mr. Moscogiuri said. “They’re looking at eggs that cost three or four times the typical amount.”

Egg producers, especially smaller, family-owned farms, are also anxious. Should one of their hens test positive for the H5N1 virus that causes avian flu, their whole flock would have to be killed to prevent the spread. “They can wake up and, potentially, your entire business is wiped out,” Mr. Moscogiuri said.

But there is at least one winner in the current shortage, which began in 2022: the country’s biggest egg producer.