If you’ve noticed egg prices getting more expensive, you’re not imagining things.
Egg prices rose 5.9% during March, hitting a record high of $6.20 for a dozen, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Still, the egg price climb has slowed, notching 10.4% in February and 15.2% in January. Compared with this time last year, egg prices are up 60.4%.
Eggs have become somewhat of a political bellwether over the past year, dominating debates and campaign stops. President Donald Trump crowed about egg prices during a Rose Garden ceremony on April 5.
“The egg prices came down 50%,” he said, praising Agriculture Secretary Brooke L. Rollins. “You got them down 50% once we got involved; they were going through the sky, the egg prices, they were going through the sky, and you did a fantastic job. Now, we have lots of eggs, and they’re much cheaper, down about 59% now, and they’re going down further.”
While the wholesale price of eggs has declined, there is often a lag in what price different retailers assign to eggs. Avian flu, which had ravaged the egg-laying hen populations, has abated somewhat, helping to relieve wholesale price pressure.
“Slowing [bird flu] outbreaks are leading to improved supply availability and wholesale market prices have responded with sharp declines over the past week,” the USDA wrote in a recent memo.
August 2019 saw the lowest egg prices of the past decade — on average, $1.21 a dozen, a far cry from today’s record price of $6.20. So if scrambled eggs seem like a much more expensive breakfast proposition these days, that’s why.