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By Siddharth Cavale
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Walmart is touting its Easter 2025 promotion as cheaper than in 2024 - even though its meal kit is missing a key component: eggs.
The U.S. retailing giant features a yearly Easter promotional meal kit with several ingredients advertised as the ingredients needed for a holiday feast. This year's meal includes ham, russet potatoes, corn on the cob and a cream cake, serving eight people for less than $6 per person - lower than the price of 2024's meal, it said.
Notably absent from this year's kit, however, are eggs, a key part of last year's offering, which are substantially pricier than a year ago as a result of shortages due to the bird flu outbreak that has forced a massive culling of herds.
The 2024 kit had 15 items, including the ingredients for deviled eggs, with a promotional image displaying a box with 18 large brown eggs. That kit served up to 10 people at an average cost of less than $8 per person, the retailer said.
"The items in the (2025) basket are based on some of the most popular Easter meal items. This year we did not include ingredients that are typically already found in one’s pantry like salt, pepper, butter, milk and eggs," Tricia Moriarty, a Walmart spokesperson said in an email.
However, salt, pepper and dairy products have not been hit by shortages - and none are as closely associated with Easter as eggs, which are also used for decoration and Easter egg hunts, including an annual event on the White House lawn.
This year, the U.S. government is considering imports of Brazilian and broiler chicken eggs to ease the burden of "egg-flation" while retailers have set limits on purchases and restaurants have bumped up the price of egg-based items on menus.
What's more, Walmart reported record holiday quarter results in February, with its grocery revenue boosted by egg-price inflation. The company, now the nation's largest grocer, has not placed any broad purchase limits on eggs in stores, even though supply has been tight in places, Moriarty said.
Walmart's Easter meal kit offer is valid until April 20. Among other Easter promotions, customers can also purchase two curated Easter baskets, containing Easter bunny chocolates, holiday accessories and paper grass for under $20 and under $40, it said.
(Reporting by Siddharth Cavale in New York; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
