Egg prices are falling. But there’s a catch

New York (CNN) — The egg shortage may have finally been cracked.

The price of wholesale eggs fell again last week to $3.00 a dozen, the US Department of Agriculture reported in their weekly egg market report. That’s a 9% decline from the week before.

“The supply situation at grocery outlets has greatly improved in recent weeks and consumers are once again seeing fully stocked shelves and enjoying a range of choices without purchase restrictions,” the report detailed.

This should be welcome news for consumers. Egg shortages and higher prices have plagued them for months. In February, the price of a dozen eggs hit a 10-year high, retailing for $5.90, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The egg market seems to be on the upswing. While the avian flu has killed 30 million egg laying birds this year, the outbreaks have been contained.

Bernt Nelson, an economist at the American Farm Bureau Federation, says the price drop is largely due to “a sharp decrease in cases of avian influenza, with just 2.1 million birds affected in March of this year, compared to 23 million in January and nearly 13 million in February.”

“America’s poultry farmers have put in the work to tighten biosecurity and they’ll continue to strive to protect their flocks,” said Nelson.

Demand has also fallen as consumers got tired of paying higher prices, giving suppliers the chance to build back supply. Lower prices have followed.

“I think the story is over on eggs right now. We got plenty of eggs coming in,” said Stew Leonard, Jr., owner of the Stew Leonard’s grocery store chain in the northeast.

Leonard says he was selling eggs for $10 a dozen in December, but today eggs are retailing in his stores for $5.99.

“We’re back to low price eggs again. There seems to be plenty of supply,” he said. “I’ve talked to our farmers down in Pennsylvania that have a number of farms with egg laying hens. They’re repopulating their stock again. Production seems to be back up.”

But despite the bright spots, it can take weeks for wholesale prices to translate to most grocery store shelves, according to the USDA.

“Only now starting to see shelf prices slowly decline,” the Department of Agriculture’s report said. “Demand from egg products manufacturers is mostly light as many have been able to take advantage of a sluggish carton market to build supplies on the spot market, enough to increase production levels to a 3-month high.”

And grocers are still limiting how much customers can buy. Costco says it is still restricting egg purchases to three per customer. One Whole Foods in downtown Manhattan had a sign limiting egg purchases despite stocked shelves.

President Donald Trump has taken credit for falling prices in recent weeks, saying “we got it down.” He’s also touted the administration’s $1 billion investment combating the avian flu. Wholesale egg prices started to fall in the last week of February, just as the USDA’s plan to fight the disease was announced.

Price increases for eggs may have slowed but are still historically high. Egg prices in February rose a whopping 10.4% from January, and is up 58.8% compared to a year ago, according to the Consumer Price Index.

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