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Egg prices are surging so high that the Trump administration is pledging to step in and solve the crisis — but don’t expect relief the next time you go grocery shopping.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced on Wednesday a plan to invest $1 billion in strategies to rein in soaring egg prices. Yet in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Rollins acknowledged that it “won’t erase the problem overnight.” Rather, she said the egg market won’t stabilize for another “three to six months.”
Egg prices have skyrocketed to all-time highs due in part to an outbreak of avian flu, or bird flu, that has been afflicting egg-laying hens in the US since 2022. Across the past three years, about 166 million birds have been affected by the deadly avian flu, according to the Agriculture Department.
Avian flu has decimated flocks of hens and constrained the supply of eggs at a time when demand for eggs has been increasing, causing prices to soar, according to Brian Earnest, lead economist for animal protein at CoBank.
The average cost of a dozen eggs in January was $4.95, almost double the price from a year prior and surpassing a record high, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Rollins said there is no “silver bullet” for tackling the avian flu outbreaks that are causing prices to soar — a sentiment experts agree with — and laid out a “five-pronged strategy” for bringing egg prices lower.
The plan denotes $500 million for improving biosecurity on farms, $400 million for providing financial assistance for farmers and $100 million for vaccine research, and focuses on reducing regulations on egg production and “exploring temporary import options.”
Turkey is set to export 420 million eggs to the United States this year, CNN previously reported.
Industry leaders welcomed Rollins’ focus on egg prices but said it’s too difficult to forecast a timeline for when consumers might see price relief in the grocery store.
“Unfortunately, there is no quick fix,” said Emily Metz, president and CEO of the American Egg Board.
Egg prices are expected to increase by 41.1% this year, according to the USDA’s food outlook as of February 25. That’s a jump from just last month, when the Department expected egg prices to increase 20% this year.
“Shell egg shortages, once limited to certain regions, are impacting most major markets as the continued [avian flu] outbreaks are hindering any attempts at flock recovery,” the USDA said in a February 21 egg market report.
Egg prices have surged so high that grocery stores are placing limits on purchases, and restaurant chains including Denny’s and Waffle House are adding surcharges for meals that contain eggs.
Stopping the spread of bird flu
If new outbreaks of avian flu are still appearing, it is too difficult to estimate when consumers might see lower egg prices, said Jayson Lusk, vice president and dean of agricultural programs at Oklahoma State University.
Repopulating the domestic supply of egg-laying hens is a complex issue, he said, not one where prices come down immediately.
“Egg production is a biological process. These are live animals that are bred and have breeding stock. And so, there is certainly a time component in adding back capacity to our national egg laying flock,” Lusk said. “That biological lag means there’s some limits in terms of how fast we can respond.”
In January alone, just over 23 million birds were affected with avian flu, according to data from the Agriculture Department. There have been more than 12.6 million birds affected with avian flu this month, as of February 26.
Avian flu is devastating for farms because birds either die from the flu or are culled to prevent its further spread. It is USDA policy to cull a flock as the bird flu spreads rapidly and is deadly once a bird is affected.
“With almost 130 million egg-laying hens lost since 2022, and nearly 31 million hens in 2025 alone, deploying a comprehensive, coordinated response to this aggressive and unceasing threat to egg production has never been more urgent,” said Chad Gregory, president and CEO of United Egg Producers, a trade group, in a statement.
Improving biosecurity measures on farms and considering the potential for a vaccine are key developments, saidRebecca Carriere Christofferson, an associate professor of pathobiological studies at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine.
The biosecurity aspect relates to securing farms, such as preventing wild birds from entering. Wild birds are a key culprit in the spread of avian flu, Christoffersen said, because they can spread the highly contagious flu to farms across a region as they migrate.
Surging to $5 a dozen
Bird flu’s devastating impact on egg-laying hens in recent years is the clear culprit for higher egg prices. But CoBank’s Earnest said there are other contributing factors.
For example, there has been a surge in demand for cage-free eggs in recent years while varying state regulations have contributed to production lagging behind demand, he wrote in a February 6 report.
Additionally, there is increasing consolidation of market power among fewer larger companies in the egg supply chain, which could lead to price gouging, according to Farm Action, an advocacy group.
Cal-Maine, a major supplier of eggs, controls about one-fifth of the US market. The company’s profits soared 718% in the third quarter of 2023 due to surging egg prices.
Lawmakers including Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts wrote to the Trump administration on January 26 to request further scrutiny of the companies in the egg supply chain for potential unfair pricing practices.
When it comes eggs, demand is inelastic, said OSU’s Lusk. Inelastic demand means that regardless of price, demand stays consistent because consumers will always buy the product. Eggs are unique because there isn’t a true substitute for them, he said.
That unique status might mean that during a time of supply shortage, companies have the chance to charge more for eggs than necessary without seeing a drop in sales.
“With production hampered by [avian flu] and elevated egg use tied to Easter promotions just around the corner, it seems all but inevitable that prices will remain elevated for the foreseeable future,” said Earnest.
CNN’s Vanessa Yurkevich contributed reporting.
