Essex County Shoppers 'Scramble' To Find Eggs Amid Nationwide Shortage

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Mass deaths from bird flu across the country have caused egg prices to soar, and in the New York City metro area, they're nearly double the national average.

The USDA's "egg market overview" last week said that the average price of a dozen white large eggs declined to $2.366 nationally, but in the New York area, wholesale prices for eggs delivered to retailers were $4.59 per dozen.

Around North Jersey, a dozen large white eggs were selling for $4.99 at Green Way Market in Maplewood. In Hoboken, Trader Joe's had them for $4.49 (see photo). ShopRite in North Jersey offered brands for $4.19 and $5.49.

Still, eggs are a relatively cheap meal when compared with the price of other proteins such as chicken or beef, with a pound of chicken breasts going for $4.42 on average in November and a pound of ground beef selling for $4.85, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Nationally, consumers have been paying an average of 11 percent more than they did a year ago, according to the December 2022 inflation report released Thursday by the government.

Residents in some states are paying two and three times more for eggs than they were at this time last year. In California, the average price for a dozen eggs last week was $7.37, about three times the cost a year ago.

Eggs from humanely raised chickens can cost even more. A Patch editor found a store in Redlands, California, that was selling cage-free eggs for $9.99 a dozen and half.

A nationwide bird flu outbreak that required the slaughter of 44 million egg-laying hens is largely behind the price spikes, according to industry experts. That cut production of eggs by about 5 percent. Almost 58 million birds, mostly egg-laying hens and turkeys, have been destroyed last year because of the outbreak.

“The flu is the most important factor affecting egg prices,” Maro Ibarburu, a business analyst at the Egg Industry Center at Iowa State University, told The Washington Post. “This outbreak, in terms of egg-laying hens, we lost 10 million more egg-laying hens than the last outbreak in 2015.”

Increased costs to farmers were a bigger factor in the sharp increase in egg prices than the bird flu, Emily Metz, the president of the American Egg Board trade group, told The Associated Press.

“When you’re looking at fuel costs [that] go up, and you’re looking at feed costs [that] go up as much as 60 percent, labor costs, packaging costs — all of that … those are much bigger factors than bird flu for sure.”

Kroger, Whole Foods, Fred Meyer and some other grocers are limiting egg purchases to one or two cartons in some areas.

A grocery store in Chevelry, Maryland, offered a mea culpa to customers with a sign above cartons of Grade A large eggs selling for $4.99 a dozen, The Associated Press reported. The sign, posted Tuesday, read, “Due to recent market increases, our egg retail has increased. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

The USDA’s Economic Research Service said in a recent forecast that wholesale egg prices will likely decline as the industry rebuilds egg-laying flocks. That takes time, though.

At least 47 states have been affected by the highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI, since February 2022. So far in 2023, bird flu reports have been filed with the USDA from Montana, California, Nebraska, Colorado, Washington, South Dakota, Kansas, Missouri and Oregon.

If the prices don’t subside, some people may think more seriously about backyard chickens.

Kelly Fischer, who lives on Chicago’s North Side, told the AP she and her neighbors are considering building a chicken coop behind their houses, “so eventually I hope not to buy them and have my own eggs.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.