As you head to the grocery store to get last-minute items for Thanksgiving, you may notice one essential item is costlier than usual.
The price of eggs is on the rise yet again as the high demand for the holidays coincides with a lingering outbreak of bird flu, the Associated Press reported. The average price for a dozen eggs in U.S. cities was $3.37 in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s down from September, when the average hit $3.82, though up significantly from October of last year, when a dozen eggs cost an average of $2.07.
Though the prices are higher, there are still plenty of eggs left in Georgia. Two major grocery chains in the metro area, Publix and Kroger, are not experiencing shortages of eggs, according to their spokespeople.
Shortages have been isolated and temporary so far, according to trade group the American Egg Board.
“Those are being rapidly corrected, sometimes within a day,” said Emily Metz, the Egg Board’s president and chief executive officer.
The current bird flu outbreak, which began in February 2022, has led to the slaughter of more than 111 million birds, mostly egg-laying chickens. Anytime the virus is found, every bird on a farm is killed to limit the spread of the disease.
Georgia commercial farms have not reported any positive cases of the highly pathogenic avian influenza, which is the fastest-spreading classification and the most fatal to chickens, said Mike Giles, the president of the Georgia Poultry Federation. The state also has yet to identify positive cases in humans or in cattle.
Despite this, however, the impact of the outbreak is still felt in Georgia, which produces more broiler chickens than any other in the country.
“The egg market is a national market, and things that happen all over the country impact the availability, supply and also the price of eggs,” Giles said.
The demand for eggs always goes up during the holidays, Giles said, which could also impact pricing. The egg industry sees its highest demand in November and December, according to the Egg Board.
More than 6 million birds have been slaughtered in the U.S. just this month because of bird flu. They were a relatively small part of the total U.S. egg-laying flock of 377 million chickens. Still, the flock is down about 3% over the past year, contributing to a 4% drop in egg production, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The egg industry is trying to rebuild the flock, but that also can limit supplies, since farmers have to hold back some eggs to hatch into new chickens, Chad Hart, a professor and agricultural economist at Iowa State University, said to the AP.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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