NEW YORK, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- Egg prices have increased nationwide by around 38 percent in the last year in the United States, bringing the average cost of one dozen up to 3.65 U.S. dollars in November versus 3.37 dollars in October and 2.14 dollars in November 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index.
"The 3.65 dollars is just an average," USA Today noted the hike on Thursday. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), the wholesale price for a carton of large eggs on the New York market rose to 6.06 dollars per dozen, while the Midwest region saw prices around 5.75 dollars and California as high as 8.97 dollars, as of Jan. 3. In other cases, eggs simply are absent from shelves altogether.
"The major reasons both experts and consumers are pointing to? The ongoing bird flu outbreak, the rising cost of doing business, and, in some locales, changing laws. When will things start to cool down? That may be a little harder to pinpoint," said the report. The ongoing Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or bird flu, outbreak is the most obvious reason for the country's current egg dilemma.
The USDA AMS said in a Jan. 3 report that grocery stores have seen "record-high prices" in retail markets across the nation, driven by "significant outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in commercial table egg layer flocks through December."
As of Jan. 6, the virus has affected more than 130 million poultry across 50 U.S. states since January 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Because of the massive spread, infected birds are being culled across the United States, with casualties sometimes numbering into the millions at a single location.
