The egg prices are probably shooting up even more in 2025. Here’s what to know.

On market baskets in some parts of Massachusetts, customers are asked for Limit their egg purchases For two cartons per Family. Another shopper in search of eggs, this one in Las Vegas, reported to find Empty shelves In a local grocery store. On social media, a consumer accustomed To pay about $ 2 for a dozen eggs expressed shock over now having to pay more than twice that amount.

Egg restrictions, deficiency and record high prices ruffled feathers in supermarkets across the United States as a deadly tribe of avian influenza continues to decimize The country’s poultry flocks. To dismay for consumers who are still struggling to digest soaring food costs, it probably means even higher egg prices in 2025.

“I think eggs have felt relatively extreme in the past few months,” Kip Green, co -owner and general manager of Montague Diner in Brooklyn, New York, told CBS News. “However, we are lucky. We have a good relationship with our providers with farmers. So everyone is trying to help each other, which is nice.”

As many eateries use Montague hundreds of eggs a day, Green said. Whether it earned as part of a classic breakfast plate along with potatoes and toast or an egg salad sandwich, eggs make up 40% to 50% of the restaurant’s menu, she said.

“I mean, it’s even like there are some things that you might not even think about, as in our pancake -dough or as in our French toast dough, like just things like that. We still use so many eggs. ”

Still, Green said she and her team are “in line with keeping guests at the forefront,” which means they shield them from price rises on eggs.

“Yes, I mean it’s challenging. As if we have to figure out how to make it work, ”she said. “Eggs are central to us, we are a dining room. You need to have an eggplate,” she said, adding, “we won’t ever stop it or get people to pay more for something similar. You find out how You reduce costs elsewhere.

The average price of a dozen large, class-A egg was $ 4.15 in December 2024, an increase of 14% from $ 3.65 in November, federal Data Displays. That’s a more than 60% increase from $ 2.51 it cost a year ago, and 160% more than the $ 1.41 consumers paid for the same cardboard in 2019, CBS News’ Price Tracker reveals.

In comparison, the total monthly inflation for food in December was 2.5%, with the cost of food at home only 0.3%, according to latest Data on consumer price index.

Like a soufflé, egg prices rise to impressive heights right in front of our eyes. When does it end? Not anytime soon, according to the USDA, which predicts In a recent report that egg prices will shoot an additional 20% this year.

Why are egg prices increasing?

Behind rising egg prices and deficiency is a strain of very pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), known as H5N1, which killed 13.2 million commercial egg -laying hens in December alone and continues to pay off flocks in 2025, according to USDA. Outbreaks of H5N1 were first detected in the United States in 2022 and is considered the greatest driving force behind the year -long volatility of egg prices.

H5N1 that has a high mortality rate among infected poultry And wild birds are closely monitored by the US centers of disease control and prevention as a potential public health threat. So far, CDC has received a Report of a person who dies After being hospitalized with serious illness from the virus. Among cattle is the average mortality and expiry speed 2% or less, According to To the American Veterinary Medical Association. However, officials warn that H5N1 is Lethal for cats

For now, the virus mostly remains a thorn in the side of US consumers Fed with inflation.

“For about a year and a half now, that kind of frequency and severity of avian influenza eruptions in the poultry and egg supply chains in the United States has just been on the rise in a big way,” Ricky Volpe, a professor of Agribusiness at Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo, told CBS MONEYWATCH. “Everyone just hopes that ‘Ok, this will be the last one, then we will come back to normal.’ But we continue to get back to normal.

More than 79.3 million American chickens died in 2022 and 2023 as a result of H5N1 infections and related interruption, according to a January report From TD Cowen. In total, H5N1 is estimated to have led to the loss of nearly 139 million birds across the country, including Puerto Rico, according to the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

Destructive to farmers

The bird’s influenza eruptions that disturb the nation’s egg supply is a serious blow to the affected farmers. Whenever viruses are found, the entire flock must be slaughtered to help limit the virus spread. Supplies are another challenge.

“It takes about 19-20 weeks for hens to be ready to produce eggs in newly re-developed charger, and that’s only an element of a long recycling process,” a American Egg Board spokesman said in an email to CBS Moneywatch.

“Fuglinfluenza is absolutely devastating to an egg yard. When an egg farm is affected by HPAI, it must undergo a comprehensive and long -term process involving several steps and government approvals before it can begin to re -build with new flocks and return to the production of eggs. This Process that can take nine months to more than a year, ”the spokesman added.

With massive eggs that routinely house more than 1 million chickens, only a few infections can lead to a supply crush.

Other factors

Another factor that runs egg prices: a sustained lack of truck drivers in the United States – a mounting problem when more drivers retire. And with fewer drivers to transport eggs to retailers, wholesalers are forced to raise shipping costs.

“Cooling truck transport is a major pain point in the food supply chain right now. There is a lack of drivers, long-distance truck rates are up and eggs are of course very transport-intensive,” Volpe said. “Even before we dealt with Aviær influenza, the trucks just weren’t there to deliver eggs in a timely manner.”

For consumers in Colorado, a state law that requires all eggs to be cage free by January 2025has added the rising price of eggs.

As a partial solution to the nationwide problem, Volpe suggests that retailers sprinkle eggs locally where possible.

“(Local suppliers) is pretty well isolated from these systemic questions about avian flu or whatever, so the supply is healthy. So it makes sense to increase supply when possible locally from local breeders who are not facing these significant Problems related to bird flu and transport “

Why are egg prices lower in some stores?

Just as retailers use Thanksgiving Day Turkey Promotions to attract customers, some grocery stores around the country offer lower egg prices to operate store traffic.

“You can go on social media and you will see someone complaining about a $ 8 dozen eggs and then another chime will in and go ‘I just got it for $ 4.’ Well, I definitely guarantee you that losses were sold and it was a kind of competitive effort to increase foot traffic, “Volpe said. “Maybe eggs are sold at a loss, but now you have to buy your milk and your bread and vegetables, everything else and these will have the normal profit margins.”

Translation: If you find a bargain on eggs in a store, you can still end up paying about the same costs for your entire basket with groceries that you would have somewhere else.

Answer from the White House

“There’s a lot of reporting out there putting Onus on this White House for the increased cost of eggs,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt when she was asked on her first press briefing on Tuesday what President Trump does to Tackle egg prices that have been spoken since he took over earlier this month.

“As for the deficiency, what also contributes to the fact that Biden Admin and the Department of Agriculture conducted mass murder of 100 million chickens,” Leavitt, who did not mention Aviar influenza, said in his answer.

Leavitt continued to urge the Senate to move “quickly” to confirm Mr. Trump’s cabinet -nominated “including his nominees to US Department of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins … There is the economic team here in the White House how we can tackle egg deficiency in this country.”

Correction: This story has been revised because it mistakenly reported that it takes less than six weeks for commercial hens to produce eggs. This is wrong. It takes 19 to 20 weeks for hens to be ready to produce eggs, according to the American Egg Board. The trading group also notes that it may take more than a year for farms suffering from a bird flu outbreak to ensure the required government distance to resume operations.

Associated Press

contributed to this report.