Washington
\nUS egg prices have fallen 60 percent from last year\u2019s record highs, making it easier for consumers to fill their Easter baskets and Passover Seder plates.
\nBird flu was to blame for elevated retail prices during the first five months of 2025, and the course of the highly contagious disease is a big reason why prices are much lower now. An outbreak forced farmers and commercial producers to slaughter entire broods of egg-laying hens, but ebbing cases in the second half of last year helped restore egg supplies, said Mark Jordan, the executive director of agricultural research firm LEAP Market Analytics.
\nThe stubborn outbreak is still affecting US poultry flocks, with the number of infected commercial flocks rising in March. But farmers have been rapidly replenishing flocks that died or had to be destroyed. Between July 2024 and July 2025 the number of egg-type chicks hatched in the US rose 8 percent. It was the first sustained and substantial increase in the availability of specially-bred layer chicks since the bird flu outbreak began in 2022, Jordan said.
\nThe Trump administration\u2019s decision to import nearly 1 billion eggs last year also helped lower prices, Jordan said, although imports have since returned to more normal levels. The US also exported fewer eggs last year to help boost domestic supplies.
\nBut what\u2019s good for consumers isn\u2019t necessarily good for farmers, who are finding it difficult to recoup their costs as egg prices plummet. They also may have to pay more for feed, including corn and soybean meal, because of the Iran war.
\n\u201cFarmers are no strangers to volatility. It\u2019s part of the business. But in recent months, many have been selling eggs at or below the cost of production,\u201d said Emily Metz, the president and CEO of the America Egg Board, a trade group.
\nHere\u2019s a look at US egg prices by the numbers, according to government figures:
\n\u2014 $2.50 per dozen: Average US price for a dozen eggs in February.
\n\u2014 $6.23 per dozen: Average US price for a dozen eggs in March 2025, which was an all-time high.
\n\u2014 315.8 million: Number of egg-laying hens in the US as of March 1. That\u2019s 8 percent higher than last year.
\n\u2014 45 million: Number of egg-laying hens in Iowa, the top US state for egg production.
\n\u2014 205.7 million: Number of chickens and other birds in commercial and backyard flocks that died or were culled due to bird flu since February 2022.
\n\u2014 5.22 million: Number of chickens and other birds that died or were culled because of bird flu in March 2026. That is more than double the number affected in March 2025.
\n\u2014 657 percent: The percentage increase in US imports of shell eggs in 2025 compared to the year before.
\n\u2014 $1.05: Average cost for farmers to produce a dozen eggs, not including labor and transportation, according to the American Egg Board. In late March, the national average wholesale price of eggs was $1.17 per dozen.
\n\u2014 40,000: Number of real eggs that will be used for this year\u2019s White House Easter Egg Roll,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington US egg prices have fallen 60 percent from last year\u2019s record highs, making it easier for consumers to fill their Easter baskets and Passover Seder plates. Bird flu was to blame for elevated retail prices during the first five months of 2025, and the course of the highly contagious disease is a big reason […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-539704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n