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'About to get worse': Why egg prices are set to skyrocket
March 09, 2025
ALTERNET
The nation's largest egg producers would have American consumers believe that avian flu and inflation are behind soaring prices, but a report published Tuesday shows corporate price gouging is the real culprit driving the record cost of the dietary staple.
The fourth installment of Food & Water Watch's (FWW) Economic Cost of Food Monopolies series—titled The Rotten Egg Oligarchy—reports that the average price of a dozen eggs in the United States hit an all-time high of $4.95 in January 2025. That's more than two-and-a-half times the average price from three years ago.
"While egg prices spiral out of reach, making eggs a luxury item, Big Ag is profiting hand over fist," FWW research director Amanda Starbuck said in a statement. "But make no mistake—today's high prices are built on a foundation of corporate price gouging. Our research shows how corporations use the worsening bird flu crisis to jack up egg prices, even as their own factory farms fuel the spread of disease."
FWW found that "egg prices were already rising before the current [avian flu] outbreak hit U.S. commercial poultry flocks in February 2022, and have never returned to pre-outbreak levels."
Furthermore, "egg price spikes hit regions that were bird flu-free until recently," the report states. "The U.S. Southeast remained free of bird flu in its table egg flocks until January 2025, and actually increased egg production in 2022 and 2023 over 2021 levels. Nevertheless, retail egg prices in the Southeast rose alongside January 2023's national price spikes."
"The corporate food system is to blame for exacerbating the scale of the outbreak as well as the high cost of eggs," the publication continues. "Factory farms are virus incubators, with the movement of animals, machines, and workers between operations helping to spread the virus."
"Meanwhile, just a handful of companies produce the majority of our eggs, giving them outsized control over the prices paid by retailers, who often pass on rising costs to consumers," the paper adds. "This highly consolidated food system also enables companies to leverage a temporary shortage in one region to raise prices across the entire country."
Cal-Maine, the nation's top egg producer, enjoyed a more than 600% increase in gross profits between fiscal years 2021-23, according to FWW. The Mississippi-based company did not suffer any avian flu outbreaks in fiscal year 2023, during which it sold more eggs than during the previous two years. Yet it still sold conventional eggs at nearly three times the price as in 2021, amounting to over $1 billion in windfall profits. Meanwhile Cal-Maine paid shareholders dividends totaling $250 million in 2023, 40 times more during the previous fiscal year.
The report highlights how factory farming creates ideal conditions for the spread of avian flu, a single case of which requires the extermination of the entire flock at the affected facility, under federal regulations.
"These impacts cannot be understated," FWW stressed. "Today's average factory egg farm confines over 800,000 birds, with some operations confining several million. This magnifies the scale of animal suffering and death, as well as the enormous environmental and safety burden of disposing of a million or more infected bird carcasses."
Citing U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) figures, The Guardian reported Tuesday that more than 54 million birds have been affected in the past three months alone.
Egg producers know precisely how the supply-and-demand implications of these outbreaks and subsequent culls can boost their bottom lines. Meanwhile, they play a dangerous game as epidemiologists widely view a potential avian flu mutation that can be transmitted from birds to humans as the next major pandemic threat—one that's exacerbated by the Trump administration's withdrawal from the World Health Organization and cuts to federal agencies focused on averting the next pandemic.
"We cannot afford to place our food system in the hands of a few corporations that put corporate profit above all else."
So far, 70 avian flu cases—one of them fatal—have been reported in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, under Trump, the CDC has stopped publishing regular reports on its avian flu response plans and activities. The USDA, meanwhile, said it "accidentally" terminated staffers working on avian flu response during the firing flurry under Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. The agency is scrambling to reverse the move.
"We cannot afford to place our food system in the hands of a few corporations that put corporate profit above all else," the FWW report argues. "Nor can we allow the factory farm system to continue polluting our environment and serving as the breeding ground for the next human pandemic."
"We need to enforce our nation's antitrust laws to go after corporate price fixing and collusion," the publication adds. "We also need a national ban on new and expanding factory farms, while transitioning to smaller, regional food systems that are more resilient to disruptions."
That is highly unlikely under Trump, whose policies—from taxation to regulation and beyond—have overwhelmingly favored the ultrawealthy and corporations over working Americans. Meanwhile, one of the president's signature campaign promises, to lower food prices "on day one," has evaporated amid ever-rising consumer costs.
According to the USDA's latest Food Price Outlook, overall food prices are projected to rise 3.4% in 2025. Eggs, however, are forecast to soar a staggering 41.1% this year—and possibly by as much as 74.9%.
"If President Trump has any interest in fulfilling his campaign pledge to lower food prices," Starbuck stressed, "he must begin by taking on the food monopolies exploiting pandemic threat for profit."
ALTERNET
The nation's largest egg producers would have American consumers believe that avian flu and inflation are behind soaring prices, but a report published Tuesday shows corporate price gouging is the real culprit driving the record cost of the dietary staple.
The fourth installment of Food & Water Watch's (FWW) Economic Cost of Food Monopolies series—titled The Rotten Egg Oligarchy—reports that the average price of a dozen eggs in the United States hit an all-time high of $4.95 in January 2025. That's more than two-and-a-half times the average price from three years ago.
"While egg prices spiral out of reach, making eggs a luxury item, Big Ag is profiting hand over fist," FWW research director Amanda Starbuck said in a statement. "But make no mistake—today's high prices are built on a foundation of corporate price gouging. Our research shows how corporations use the worsening bird flu crisis to jack up egg prices, even as their own factory farms fuel the spread of disease."
FWW found that "egg prices were already rising before the current [avian flu] outbreak hit U.S. commercial poultry flocks in February 2022, and have never returned to pre-outbreak levels."
Furthermore, "egg price spikes hit regions that were bird flu-free until recently," the report states. "The U.S. Southeast remained free of bird flu in its table egg flocks until January 2025, and actually increased egg production in 2022 and 2023 over 2021 levels. Nevertheless, retail egg prices in the Southeast rose alongside January 2023's national price spikes."
"The corporate food system is to blame for exacerbating the scale of the outbreak as well as the high cost of eggs," the publication continues. "Factory farms are virus incubators, with the movement of animals, machines, and workers between operations helping to spread the virus."
"Meanwhile, just a handful of companies produce the majority of our eggs, giving them outsized control over the prices paid by retailers, who often pass on rising costs to consumers," the paper adds. "This highly consolidated food system also enables companies to leverage a temporary shortage in one region to raise prices across the entire country."
Cal-Maine, the nation's top egg producer, enjoyed a more than 600% increase in gross profits between fiscal years 2021-23, according to FWW. The Mississippi-based company did not suffer any avian flu outbreaks in fiscal year 2023, during which it sold more eggs than during the previous two years. Yet it still sold conventional eggs at nearly three times the price as in 2021, amounting to over $1 billion in windfall profits. Meanwhile Cal-Maine paid shareholders dividends totaling $250 million in 2023, 40 times more during the previous fiscal year.
The report highlights how factory farming creates ideal conditions for the spread of avian flu, a single case of which requires the extermination of the entire flock at the affected facility, under federal regulations.
"These impacts cannot be understated," FWW stressed. "Today's average factory egg farm confines over 800,000 birds, with some operations confining several million. This magnifies the scale of animal suffering and death, as well as the enormous environmental and safety burden of disposing of a million or more infected bird carcasses."
Citing U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) figures, The Guardian reported Tuesday that more than 54 million birds have been affected in the past three months alone.
Egg producers know precisely how the supply-and-demand implications of these outbreaks and subsequent culls can boost their bottom lines. Meanwhile, they play a dangerous game as epidemiologists widely view a potential avian flu mutation that can be transmitted from birds to humans as the next major pandemic threat—one that's exacerbated by the Trump administration's withdrawal from the World Health Organization and cuts to federal agencies focused on averting the next pandemic.
"We cannot afford to place our food system in the hands of a few corporations that put corporate profit above all else."
So far, 70 avian flu cases—one of them fatal—have been reported in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, under Trump, the CDC has stopped publishing regular reports on its avian flu response plans and activities. The USDA, meanwhile, said it "accidentally" terminated staffers working on avian flu response during the firing flurry under Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. The agency is scrambling to reverse the move.
"We cannot afford to place our food system in the hands of a few corporations that put corporate profit above all else," the FWW report argues. "Nor can we allow the factory farm system to continue polluting our environment and serving as the breeding ground for the next human pandemic."
"We need to enforce our nation's antitrust laws to go after corporate price fixing and collusion," the publication adds. "We also need a national ban on new and expanding factory farms, while transitioning to smaller, regional food systems that are more resilient to disruptions."
That is highly unlikely under Trump, whose policies—from taxation to regulation and beyond—have overwhelmingly favored the ultrawealthy and corporations over working Americans. Meanwhile, one of the president's signature campaign promises, to lower food prices "on day one," has evaporated amid ever-rising consumer costs.
According to the USDA's latest Food Price Outlook, overall food prices are projected to rise 3.4% in 2025. Eggs, however, are forecast to soar a staggering 41.1% this year—and possibly by as much as 74.9%.
"If President Trump has any interest in fulfilling his campaign pledge to lower food prices," Starbuck stressed, "he must begin by taking on the food monopolies exploiting pandemic threat for profit."
Trump encourages followers to 'shut up about egg prices' — boosts op-ed blaming Biden for high costs
MONROE, LOUISIANA, USA - JANUARY 18, 2023: An American Caucasian man checks a carton of eggs in the grocery store before purchase. The price of egg has been very expensive due to the shortage supply.
Elizabeth Preza
MONROE, LOUISIANA, USA - JANUARY 18, 2023: An American Caucasian man checks a carton of eggs in the grocery store before purchase. The price of egg has been very expensive due to the shortage supply.
Elizabeth Preza
March 09, 2025
ALTERNET
President Donald Trump, as president-elect, insisted he “won an election” based on the price of groceries —and promised to “bring those prices way down.”
"Very simple word, groceries,” Trump told Meet the Press host Kristen Welker in December. “Like almost, you know, who uses the word? I started using the word – the groceries. When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time, and I won an election based on that.”
“We’re going to bring those prices way down,” Trump insisted.
But now, a mere three months after that interview and six weeks into his presidency, Trump would very much like you to stop talking about the cost of groceries — or, at least, “shut up about egg prices” — according to an op-ed by Turning Point Action CEO Charlie Kirk reposted by the president to his Truth Social feed Saturday.
Per the Guardian, “Egg prices have soared to record highs this year, with the cost of a dozen large eggs hitting almost $5 in January – more than two and a half times the average price three years ago, before the avian flu outbreak.”
Kirk’s own op-ed even has the cost of a dozen eggs "around $7, up from just $2 in October.”
But to Kirk, “the high price of eggs is in no way President Trump’s fault.” Instead, the conservative pundit lays the blame squarely at the feet of former President Joe Biden.
Kirk, in his op-ed promises, the current president’s policies “will put downward pressure on prices” — because, he writes, “the building blocks of America’s next great low-inflation, high-wage growth boom have already been laid.”
“And soon enough, so too will the eggs,” Kirk muses.
But despite Kirk’s insistence, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) — headed by Trump appointee Brooke Rollins — in February predicted egg prices could climb more than 40 percent this year as bird flu forces farmers to cull “more than 166 million birds” — including “30 million egg layers,” the Associated Press reports.
“It’s going to take a while to get through, I think in the next month or two, but hopefully by summer,” Rollins said in February.
But as the AP reports, while Rollins' USDA vows to identify “the most effective measures farmers can take” against bird flu, Brian Earnest, lead economist for animal protein at CoBank, is skeptical that things will look much different from Biden to Trump.
“I don’t see a whole lot here that is a big change here from the current plan of action,” Earnest said in February.
President Donald Trump, as president-elect, insisted he “won an election” based on the price of groceries —and promised to “bring those prices way down.”
"Very simple word, groceries,” Trump told Meet the Press host Kristen Welker in December. “Like almost, you know, who uses the word? I started using the word – the groceries. When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time, and I won an election based on that.”
“We’re going to bring those prices way down,” Trump insisted.
But now, a mere three months after that interview and six weeks into his presidency, Trump would very much like you to stop talking about the cost of groceries — or, at least, “shut up about egg prices” — according to an op-ed by Turning Point Action CEO Charlie Kirk reposted by the president to his Truth Social feed Saturday.
Per the Guardian, “Egg prices have soared to record highs this year, with the cost of a dozen large eggs hitting almost $5 in January – more than two and a half times the average price three years ago, before the avian flu outbreak.”
Kirk’s own op-ed even has the cost of a dozen eggs "around $7, up from just $2 in October.”
But to Kirk, “the high price of eggs is in no way President Trump’s fault.” Instead, the conservative pundit lays the blame squarely at the feet of former President Joe Biden.
Kirk, in his op-ed promises, the current president’s policies “will put downward pressure on prices” — because, he writes, “the building blocks of America’s next great low-inflation, high-wage growth boom have already been laid.”
“And soon enough, so too will the eggs,” Kirk muses.
But despite Kirk’s insistence, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) — headed by Trump appointee Brooke Rollins — in February predicted egg prices could climb more than 40 percent this year as bird flu forces farmers to cull “more than 166 million birds” — including “30 million egg layers,” the Associated Press reports.
“It’s going to take a while to get through, I think in the next month or two, but hopefully by summer,” Rollins said in February.
But as the AP reports, while Rollins' USDA vows to identify “the most effective measures farmers can take” against bird flu, Brian Earnest, lead economist for animal protein at CoBank, is skeptical that things will look much different from Biden to Trump.
“I don’t see a whole lot here that is a big change here from the current plan of action,” Earnest said in February.
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