By DEE-ANN DURBIN, JOSH FUNK and MARK VANCLEAVE
Egg costs are rising as soon as extra as a lingering outbreak of chicken flu coincides with the excessive demand of the vacation baking season.
However costs are nonetheless removed from the latest peak they reached virtually two years in the past. And the American Egg Board, a commerce group, says egg shortages at grocery shops have been remoted and short-term to this point.
“These are being quickly corrected, generally inside a day,” stated Emily Metz, the Egg Board’s president and chief government officer.
The typical worth for a dozen eggs in U.S. cities was $3.37 in October, in keeping with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was down barely from September, and down considerably from January 2023, when the common worth soared to $4.82. But it surely was up 63% from October 202, when a dozen eggs value a median of $2.07.
Metz stated the egg trade sees its highest demand in November and December.
“You possibly can’t have your vacation baking, your pumpkin pie, your stuffing, with out eggs,” she stated.
Avian influenza is the primary cause for the upper costs. The present chicken flu outbreak that started in February 2022 has led to the slaughter of greater than 111 million birds, principally egg-laying chickens. Anytime the virus is discovered, each chicken on a farm is killed to restrict the unfold of the illness.
Greater than 6 million birds have been slaughtered simply this month due to chicken flu. They have been a comparatively small a part of the entire U.S. egg-laying flock of 377 million chickens. Nonetheless, the flock is down about 3% over the previous 12 months, contributing to a 4% drop in egg manufacturing, in keeping with the U.S. Division of Agriculture.
The most recent wave of chicken flu is scrambling provides of cage-free eggs as a result of California has been among the many hardest hit states. California, Nevada, Washington and Oregon all require eggs offered of their states to be cage-free.
“We’re having to maneuver eggs from different areas of the nation which might be producing cage-free to cowl that low provide in these states, as a result of these states solely permit for cage-free eggs to be offered,” Metz stated.
Cage-free necessities are set to enter impact in Arizona, Colorado and Michigan subsequent 12 months and in Rhode Island and Utah in 2030.
Demand for such specialty eggs may be contributing to avian flu, which is unfold by way of the droppings of untamed birds as they migrate previous farms. Permitting chickens to roam extra freely places them at larger danger, stated Chad Hart, a professor and agricultural economist at Iowa State College.
“It’s actually arduous to regulate that interplay between domesticated birds and wild birds,” Hart stated. “A few of these vectors have been opened up as a result of we’re asking the egg trade to supply in ways in which we didn’t ask them to earlier than.”
Metz stated local weather change and excessive climate are additionally blowing some wild birds astray.
“We’ve got birds which have been displaced by hurricanes, by wildfires, and people birds are actually circulating in areas that they in any other case won’t flow into or at occasions of the 12 months that they in any other case will not be circulating,” she stated. “And people are all new variables that our farmers are having to cope with.”
Hart stated the egg trade is attempting to rebuild the flock, however that can also restrict provides, since farmers have to carry again some eggs to hatch into new chickens.
Nonetheless, there may be some excellent news on U.S. poultry farms. The worth of hen feed — which represents 70% of a farmer’s prices — has fallen considerably after doubling between 2020 and 2022, Hart stated.
Durbin reported from Detroit. Funk reported from Omaha. Vancleave reported from Minneapolis.
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