What’s happening to the price of eggs?

Earlier this year, egg prices dominated the news cycle. In fact, they were something of a political football in places such as the US, where inflation in groceries, and eggs in particular, was seen as one of the key issues that decided last year’s Presidential election. Now, egg prices in the US are down. In Europe, however, it’s a different story. US eggs reached a five-year high of around $8 per dozen in March, according to Trading Economics. Since then, the price has dramatically fallen to just over a quarter of this amount. Avian influenza, or bird flu, was a key factor in this, leading to millions of deaths of laying hens – a substantial proportion of the chickens in the United States – and making eggs themselves rarer. “This sudden and large-scale reduction in supply created a severe market imbalance, pushing prices sharply higher,” explains Ralitsa Videnova, market research analyst at commodity intelligence platform Vesper. Since then, a number of factors have contributed to a reduction in price. More than 20m lots of shell eggs (which are sold in dozens) have been imported into the country since January, explains Videnova, from countries including Brazil, Honduras, Mexico, Turkey and South Korea. This has eased the domestic supply gap. Moreover, work by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to improve farm biosecurity and accelerate flock recovery has helped reassure the market. One more contributor to the price reduction is the season. Prices tend to dip in the summer months of July and August every year anyway, due to reduced consumer demand. Meanwhile, the price of European eggs is rising, especially in central Europe. Demand, particularly for eggs involved in processing, has seen a “sharp increase”, says Videnova. Producers of powdered eggs have delayed purchases because they anticipate a price correction. Nevertheless, “with the seasonal high-demand period approaching in September to December, they are now rebuilding stocks more aggressively, adding demand pressure ahead of the anticipated autumn price rise”. The impact of bird flu on egg prices is also not negligible, even in Europe. While impact in the continent was “more localised” than in the US, with only a few smaller outbreaks in Poland and Hungary, supplies are still affected from these outbreaks, which constricted production in the region. The US and EU have two “largely independent” markets for eggs, explains Videnova. “The US and EU have strict and differing import requirements for eggs, meaning there is minimal cross-border trade between them. In fact, Lithuania is currently the only EU country certified to export shell eggs to the US, so price movements in one region have limited direct influence on the other.” The EU was also affected in a much more limited way by bird flu outbreaks, although now, ironically, the US has recovered more significantly due to mass imports.

What’s happening to the price of eggs?

Price rises in Europe complement a significant dip in the US

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