- According to the largest egg producer in the US, organic eggs are cheaper than regular ones.
- Bird flu has decimated chicken flocks, resulting in fewer eggs and higher prices.
- Prices may not fall well into 2023 as farms rebuild their herds.
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The next time you’re grocery shopping, you can actually save money by buying organic eggs instead of regular eggs.
Egg producer Cal-Maine Foods said in an earnings report Wednesday that the average selling price for its specialty eggs rose to $2,370 per dozen. That’s more than the average price of $2,883 for regular eggs. “Special Eggs” include types of eggs that have historically been more expensive, such as B. Organic and cage eggs.
Grocery shoppers took note: Cal-Maine said sales volumes of its specialty eggs rose 24% in the quarter ended Nov. 26. Sales volumes of regular eggs fell by around 2% over the same period. Cal-Maine is the largest egg producer in the US.
“Conventional egg prices in excess of specialty egg prices have occurred over the past three quarters but are historically atypical,” Cal-Maine said in a statement detailing second-quarter earnings.
Vital Farms shows consumers where their Vital Farms eggs come from
Bird flu has hit chicken flocks hard, resulting in fewer eggs and higher prices
Inflation has pushed up the prices of a variety of foods over the past two years. But the story behind egg prices includes another factor: bird flu.
The most recent U.S. outbreak began in February 2022. Up to 58 million chickens have been affected since then, according to data updated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Thursday. Bird flu spreads quickly and is often deadly. It kills 90 to 100 percent of chickens it reaches within days of infection, according to the CDC.
Many commercial farms that raise chickens for regular eggs have had to kill birds when the disease appears in their flocks. This has led to a decline in the number of egg-laying chickens in the US, according to the USDA.
As a result, prices have moved upwards. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, egg prices rose 49% in November from the same month in 2021. No other food product tracked by the Bureau’s Consumer Price Index saw prices rise as rapidly during this period.
Higher egg prices on grocery store shelves have continued into the holiday season, which is traditionally a time of high demand for eggs as people bake seasonal sweets. Grocery stores typically tout consumers with their egg prices to get them to the door, but bird flu “has resulted in grocers virtually stopping including shell eggs in their weekly newsletters,” according to a Dec. 23 USDA report Egg Market reads.
Farms that raise organic and other specialty eggs have not been hit as hard by bird flu, resulting in more stable supply and prices
But farms that produce cage-free and other specialty eggs tend to be smaller than their mainstream counterparts. As a result, they weren’t hit as hard by bird flu and were more reliable suppliers, Phil Lempert, a food industry analyst, told NPR’s Marketplace on Monday.
Organic and other specialty eggs still make up a minority of eggs sold in the United States. They accounted for just over a third of the eggs Cal-Maine sold last quarter, the company said in its earnings report.
Cal-Maine said that bird flu “will continue to put pressure on the overall egg supply.” These pressures and higher prices could last well into 2023 when farms restore their herds to pre-outbreak levels.
Some consumers have started buying more expensive brands of eggs as the prices of conventional eggs have increased. Vital Farms, which sells pasture-raised regular and organic eggs for several dollars a dozen in grocery stores, has attracted new customers who previously bought mid-range eggs.
“We’re catching some of these people in the middle, and the cheapest eggs are catching some of the people in the middle,” Russell Diez-Canseco, Vital’s president and CEO, said on a conference call in August.
Are you a consumer affected by rising egg prices? Contact Alex Bitter at [email protected] or via the encrypted messaging app Signal at (808) 854-4501.