Wholesale egg prices are down more than $1 a dozen since hitting a record daily average price of $5.40 a dozen in the week before Christmas, said USDA economists in the monthly Livestock, Dairy and Poultry report. “While wholesale prices are expected to decline further, they will likely stay elevated as producers rebuild their egg-laying flock capacity.”
Retail egg prices are less volatile than wholesale prices, but they “also tend to lag the wholesale prices,” said the economists. The daily average wholesale price for eggs was $4.12 a dozen on Jan. 11, said the economists, who estimated an average wholesale price of $2.05 a dozen for the year; prices are expected to decline throughout 2023.
The U.S. flock of laying hens was nearly 5-percent smaller in 2022 than the previous year, due to the outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza that began last February. Table egg production was 3.2-percent lower. The loss of hens was offset somewhat by higher egg production per hen, said the USDA. Some 43.3 million hens have died due to bird flu and the culling of infected flocks during 2022.
“Recent data on upstream production suggests a more gradual and moderate expansion in the near-term production,” said the USDA report. The egg industry usually expands production in late winter and early spring in anticipation of Easter demand.
The group Farm Action asked the Federal Trade Commission last week to investigate high egg prices, “prosecute any violations of the antitrust laws it finds within, and ultimately, get the American people their money back.”
