Egg prices are back on the rise as a devastating bird flu outbreak and swelling consumer demand eats into supply.
Wholesale egg prices surpassed about $3 per dozen in August, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, up from the usual $1 to $2 range. Retail egg prices were up 19% in August compared to last year, according to the latest Consumer Price Index data, while the broader grocery category increased only 1%.
highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, has forced egg supplies to be “less robust than normal.” At the same time, U.S. sales have jumped to levels not seen since the pandemic.
Despite the price fluctuations, consumers continue to buy eggs — and more of them, as of the last few months. August egg sales were up more than 5% compared to 2023, and producers sold 237 million eggs in the most recent four-week period. “We haven’t seen that number since the first year of COVID,” he said, when sales soared as consumers stocked up on staples including eggs and toilet paper.
As domestic demand stays strong, other countries are also buying more U.S. eggs. According to the U.S. Egg Export Council, total exports for the first four months of the year increased by 22% to 63.5 million dozen eggs, though values were down 22%.
Demand is expected to rise further during the fall and winter months with the holiday baking season entering full swing. That could further pressure the commercial egg supply, especially as bird flu also spreads more easily in colder climates.
I’ll buy the flu and demand angle when I see the egg suppliers post losses.
So you’re rejecting verifiable and well known facts to appease your feelings? Cool.
This is called inflation. Every company ever has done this. Prices are increased explicitly to reduce demand. If they were to lower the prices and take a loss when there’s already no supply, they’d go out of business. Every company adjusts the price of their goods based on demand.
If you’re not happy about it, don’t buy the product. Or, buy products that are already priced at the value they offer. I’ve been paying over $5 for eggs for over ten years. The prices have not changed. Paying a dollar for a dozen eggs is absolutely ridiculous. Finding out that people were pissed because an egg was costing in excess of a dime or two is something I’m still struggling to come to terms with.
If you want to go on about corporate greed in agriculture, you should be looking at the beef and pork producers. The entire industry is a literal organized crime ring run by four companies using a shared database of sales and profits to push prices up in unison.
See, the problem here is…
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kroger-hiked-milk-egg-prices-205327114.html
Kinda. That’s an additional problem caused by resellers. This topic is about farmers and whole sale prices and consumer demand. What you’ve linked to is not inflation but corporate greed.
“On milk and eggs, retail inflation has been significantly higher than cost inflation,” Groff wrote.
Two different subjects.
Edit: Man, people are so angry about “____” that they completely ignore the facts presented to them. It’s incredible. I can’t understand that after all these years people still put their feelings before facts. I would have thought the world would have collectively learned this lesson by now.
Corporate greed is one of the leading causes of what we refer to as “inflation” i.e. prices going up. You can’t really seperate the two
August egg sales were up more than 5% compared to 2023, and producers sold 237 million eggs in the most recent four-week period. “We haven’t seen that number since the first year of COVID,” he said, when sales soared as consumers stocked up on staples including eggs and toilet paper.
Are these those verifiable and well known facts to appease your feelings? Cool.
Yes. I don’t understand your question. Are you not aware of what facts are?
Ok good, then we agree they’re seeing record profits and should not be raising prices.
