Egg Prices Soar In NJ, But Costs May Go Down Soon

NEW JERSEY — Skyrocketing egg prices may have turned a corner, but the pantry staple has a long way to go before New Jerseyans will find the costs they're used to.

The prices more than doubled in the past year, with the industry blaming inflation and the record avian flu outbreak across the United States. But a farm-advocacy group cried foul, accusing egg-industry giants of price gouging.

Here's what New Jerseyans should know.

How Expensive Are Eggs Now?

Here were the price averages for a dozen Grade A white eggs at major chains in the New York area as of Friday, according to agricultural officials:

• extra large: ranging from $1.89 to $6.59, mostly $5.89 to $6.59
• large: ranging from $1.79 to $8.79, mostly $5.79 to $6.49
• medium: ranging from $4.99 to $6.39, mostly $5.89 to $6.39

However, prices for retailers began declining, meaning consumers may save more soon. After soaring throughout much of the past year, egg prices began to decline this month, according to estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The wholesale price for large cartoned shell eggs delivered to retailers in New York dipped 15 cents last week, hitting $3.13 per dozen, per the USDA's egg markets overview, released Friday. That's a significant decline from last month, when New York eggs averaged $5.42 per dozen as of Dec. 23. But $3.13 per dozen remains 75 percent higher than the U.S. average of $1.79 in December 2021.

Inflation, Bird Flu

According to industry members and the USDA, a record-setting outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, combined with inflation, drove egg prices higher. The virus killed more than 58 million birds since the beginning of last year, resulting in U.S. egg inventories declining 29 percent to end 2022.

There were two main outbreaks: one from February to June, which killed 30.7 million hens and another from September to December that resulted in 12.6 million hen deaths. As a result, egg inventories never recovered from the spring wave and then failed to meet demand during the holiday-baking season, the USDA says.

With lower demand, inventory began rising again at the end of December, so the USDA expects prices to decrease going forward.

Price-Gouging Accusations

Farm Action, a farmer-led advocacy group, sees another factor at play, calling for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the egg industry for price gouging.

By the group's calculations, the egg supply never declined more than 7-8 percent from the prior year. But Cal-Maine Foods, one of the corporations mentioned in Farm Action's letter, reported a 10-fold increase in gross profits last year — from $50.4 million to $545.3 million for the 26-week period ending Nov. 26.

"In the end, what Cal-Maine Foods and the other large egg producers did last year — and seem to be intent on doing again this year — is extort billions of dollars from the pockets of ordinary Americans through what amounts to a tax on a staple we all need: eggs," the letter says. "They did so without any legitimate business justification. They did so because there is no 'reasonable substitute' for a carton of eggs. They did so because they had power and weren’t afraid to use it."