Egg prices hit a new record the first week Trump was in office. Don’t expect them to drop in 2025
Along with all the changes we’ve seen across the country in the early throws of 2025, consumers have been warned to expect some record-high egg prices in the United States.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) price outlook, egg prices are predicted to increase by 20.3 percent by the end of 2025. This isn’t necessarily a surprise, since retail egg prices were up by 8.4 percent in December.
The elevated egg prices come after the 2022 outbreak of bird flu, which led to more than 20 million egg-laying chickens dying in the U.S. during the last quarter of 2024.
Retail egg prices are also 36.8 percent higher in December 2024 than they were in December 2023, according to the Consumer Price Index. A dozen large, grade-A eggs cost an average of $4.16 in December 2024, which was a noteable rise from the previous months, with the same carton costing $3.60 and $3.37 in November and October 2024, respectively.
“Not to be the bearer of bad news, but we’re in this for a while,” Emily Metz, president and CEO of the American Egg Board, said in a statement. “Until we have time without a detection, unfortunately, this very, very tight egg supply is going to continue.”
The current bird flu outbreak that began in February 2022 has led to the slaughter of more than 111 million birds, mostly egg-laying chickens. Anytime the virus is found, every bird on a farm is killed to limit the spread of the disease.
The latest wave of bird flu is scrambling supplies of cage-free eggs because California has been among the hardest-hit states. California, Nevada, Washington, and Oregon all require eggs sold in their states to be cage-free.
“We’re having to move eggs from other areas of the country that are producing cage-free to cover that low supply in those states because those states only allow for cage-free eggs to be sold,” Metz previously said in a statement.
The increase in the cost of eggs is also a result of economy-wide inflation in the U.S. According to the USDA’s price outlook, prices for all foods are expected to increase by 2.2 percent in 2025, with grocery store prices predicted to increase by 1.3 percent.
The price of eggs became a political football during the presidential campaign last year, with now-President Donald Trump claiming that eggs were $5 under then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
His comment came days after his running mate, now-Vice President JD Vance, claimed eggs cost $4 while standing in front of a display selling a dozen for $2.99 at a grocery store in Reading, Pennsylvania.
“Let’s talk about eggs,” Vance said in September. “Because these guys actually eat about 14 eggs every single morning. Eggs, when Kamala Harris took office, were short of $1.50 a dozen. Now a dozen eggs will cost you around $4,” he added. “Thanks to Kamala Harris’s inflationary policies, Pennsylvania actually has seen some of the worst grocery price increases of the entire nation, and again, it’s because she cast a deciding vote on the inflation explosion act.”
During his campaign, Trump also repeatedly said that he was focused on helping the economy, which included lowering grocery prices. However, during his interview with Time in December, when he was named the publication’s “Person of The Year,” he noted that this wouldn’t necessarily be an easy task.
“I’d like to bring them down. It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard. But I think that they will,” he said. “I think that energy is going to bring them down. I think a better supply chain is going to bring them down.”
He reiterated his plan to bring grocery prices down during his inauguration speech on January 20. “I will direct all members of my Cabinet to marshal the vast powers at their disposal to defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices,” he said.
