Egg prices are falling. But there’s a catch

The egg shortage may have finally been cracked.

The egg shortage may have finally been cracked. The price of wholesale eggs fell again last week to $3.00 a dozen, the US Department of Agriculture reported in their weekly egg market report. That’s a 9% decline from the week before. “The supply situation at grocery outlets has greatly improved in recent weeks and consumers are once again seeing fully stocked shelves and enjoying a range of choices without purchase restrictions,” the report detailed. This should be welcome news for consumers. Egg shortages and higher prices have plagued them for months. In February, the price of a dozen eggs hit a 10-year high, retailing for $5.90, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The egg market seems to be on the upswing. While the avian flu has killed 30 million egg laying birds this year, the outbreaks have been contained. Bernt Nelson, an economist at the American Farm Bureau Federation, says the price drop is largely due to “a sharp decrease in cases of avian influenza, with just 2.1 million birds affected in March of this year, compared to 23 million in January and nearly 13 million in February.”