Eggs forecast to cost consumers 41% more in 2025

Consumers will find no relief from rising egg prices this year.

That’s the most recent scenario from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s forecast on overall food costs.

This week, the USDA’s Food Price Outlook summary report predicted all food prices will increase and “rise slightly faster than the historical average rate of growth.”

But it’s egg prices that has everyone digging deeper into their wallets.

On the retail level, the USDA report forecasts a 41 percent rise in egg prices this year. If that rate holds, that means eggs could cost nearly $7 a dozen based on January’s Consumer Price Index report price of nearly $5 a dozen.

Egg costs for consumers were 53 percent higher in January 2025 than in January 2024, surpassing previous peak prices in 2023, the USDA said in its forecast report. In January, retail egg prices increased by nearly 14 percent after jumping more than 8 percent from December 2024, based on January’s Consumer Price Index report.

Egg prices have been skyrocketing in recent months with most of the blame on the ongoing outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza (HPAI) or bird flu.

“Retail egg prices continue to experience volatile month-to-month changes due to an outbreak of HPAI that began in 2022,” the USDA report stated. “HPAI contributes to elevated egg prices by reducing egg-layer flocks and egg production.”

In January, the USDA said 18.8 million commercial egg layer birds have been affected by the outbreak, the highest since the outbreak began in 2022.

Also affecting supplies are new cage-free laws in states like Michigan that are now in place.

In 2025, the USDA predicts overall food will increase by more than 3% for all food, food at home, and food away from home. Prices for certain items, such as eggs, sugars and sweets, nonalcoholic beverages, and fresh fruits, the summary predicts, will rise at above-average rates.

Increases in 2025 expected, according to the USDA report include:

• Beef and veal: +3.2%
• Pork: +1.2%
• Fresh fruits: +2.4%
• Sugar and sweets: +6.4%
• Nonalcoholic beverages: +4.4%

The USDA’s report predicts no change in poultry prices.

Is help on the way?

It has been three years since the outbreak started with more than 165 million egg-laying hens culled because of bird flu.

Brooke Rollins, USDA Secretary, in a Wednesday Wall Street Journal op-ed, laid out a plan to combat bird flu and lower egg prices that included investing up to “$1 billion to curb this crisis and make eggs affordable again.”

Funds for the program, Rollins wrote, will come from working with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) repurposing money from cuts to government spending.

Rollins’ plan includes:

• $500 million in implanting biosecurity measures.
• $400 million in financial relief to farmers with flocks affected by the avian flu.
• $100 million in research and development of “vaccines and therapeutics for laying chickens.”
• Lower prices by removing, where possible, regulatory burdens on egg producers and making it easier for families to raise backyard chickens. Rollins pointed out California’s Proposition 12 with space requirements for egg-laying hens “increasing production costs and contributing to the Golden State’s average price of $9.68 a dozen,” in the op-ed.
• Consider allowing temporary imports of eggs.

Rollins wrote that while the strategy “won’t erase the problem overnight,” she is “confident that it will restore stability to the egg market over the next three to six months.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press. Reporting by Susan Selasky, Detroit Free Press