Egg prices are finally falling. But they’re about to spike again

By Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN

New York (CNN) — There may be some cracks forming in the egg market.

For the past several months, consumers have been faced with a hard reality: Fewer eggs at higher prices.

But in the first week of March, prices for wholesale loose eggs fell by $1.20, averaging about $6.85 a dozen nationally, down 15% from the week before, the Department of Agriculture said in its latest market report. That’s what retailers pay, not consumers – but it’s a potentially encouraging sign and an indication that egg prices could start to fall at grocery stores.

“Demand for shell eggs continues to fade into the new month as no significant outbreaks of HPAI have been detected in nearly two weeks. This respite has provided an opportunity for production to make progress in reducing recent shell egg shortages,” the USDA said in its Egg Markets Overview report.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump took credit for falling egg prices.

“We got it down, we did a lot of things. We have a great Secretary of Agriculture, and we did a lot of things that got the cost of eggs down, very substantially,” the president said from the oval office Wednesday.

But consumers are still paying elevated prices at the grocery store. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins last month announced a plan to invest $1 billion in strategies to rein in soaring egg prices but acknowledged in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that it “won’t erase the problem overnight.” She said the egg market won’t stabilize for another “three to six months.”

So far, that prediction is playing out in the market.

“Egg prices are setting new records in 2025,” wrote Bernt Nelson, an economist at the American Farm Bureau Federation in a new report out Tuesday. “Some 12 million birds, mostly layers, were lost in February, bringing the total number of birds affected so far in 2025 to over 35 million and driving egg prices even higher.”

Egg prices were up 10.4% in February according to the Consumer Price Index released Wednesday. That’s better than the surge in January, when egg prices were up 15.2%. Year-over-year, egg prices increased 58.8% last month.

The avian flu has killed 127 million egg laying birds since 2022 – flocks that had to be culled, leading to egg shortages and higher prices.

The Trump administration’s plan to bring egg prices lower calls for an increase in biosecurity, a deployment of epidemiologists to work with egg producers, exploring new vaccines, as well as increasing egg imports. Mexico and Turkey are sending a combined 827,000 dozen eggs to offset short supply in the US, according to the USDA.

But egg prices are almost certainly about to rise again: Easter and Passover will bring a renewed demand for eggs, similar to demand seen during Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hanukkah. Lighter demand for eggs in the weeks leading up to the spring holidays may give egg producers time to rebuild some of their stock, the USDA said in its report. But while that may help with supply, prices may still increase.

“We’re going into Easter season. This is always the highest price for eggs. We expect it to perhaps inch back up, but a good piece of news since we released our plan about a week and a half ago,” said Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, pointing to the wholesale drop in egg prices.

And while Passover and EAster are later than usual this year – April 12 and April 20, respectively – those holidays also coincide with the spring migration.

“Egg farmers are closely watching spring migration of wild birds, recognizing that wild birds are a leading cause of the spread of this virus and pose a great and ongoing threat to egg-laying flocks,” said Emily Metz, President of the American Egg Board.

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