Looks like Big Egg is going to send you to the cereal aisle. There’ve been warnings about egg prices going up for over a year. And the only thing more reliable than taxes is that if someone predicts a price increase, there’s a price increase – whether the reasons are real or fabricated. So as predicted, people are being choked out by the carton. The excuse given is last year’s avian flu outbreak. Supplies were cut so severely, egg farmers had to charge a claw and wing for the product. However, like most of the unnecessary price increases we’re subjected to, greedy egg producers used a scare to gouge consumers. Advocacy group Farm Action said production has not decreased as much as egg producers want us to believe, they’re just continuing to float that myth so they can keep prices high.
Nowhere is the ire over inflation more concentrated than in the price of a carton of eggs. According to the Bureau of Labor, a dozen eggs cost an average $4.25 last December compared to $1.78 a year ago. In some parts of the country, the average price is $9.73.
Most of the explanations thus far as to why eggs have increased in price assume the invisible hand of the market or blame “acts of god” like last year’s avian flu outbreak that took out 43 million birds. But in a letter to FTC chair Lina Khan, the advocacy group Farm Action points out that the math behind those explanations doesn’t add up. Rather, Farm Action’s legal counsel Basel Musharbash alleges “a collusive scheme among industry leaders to turn inflationary conditions and an avian flu outbreak into an opportunity to extract egregious profits reaching as high as 40 percent.”
“Contrary to industry narratives, the increase in the price of eggs has not been an ‘Act of God’—it has been simple profiteering,” the letter notes, adding that the industry’s profit margins have risen to “unprecedented” levels alongside egg price increases.
The story, according to the organization, is not one of egg prices going up because of a crisis, but one we’ve seen over and over again over the last year: Prices are increasing under the guise of uncontrollable “inflation” simply because companies can make more money if they raise prices. The trend applies to everything from breakfast cereal to rent.
The egg industry has previously come under scrutiny for such behavior: a group of egg buyers accused egg producers of engaging in anti-competitive behavior between 2004-2008, including slaughtering chickens to artificially induce scarcity.
“The real culprit behind this 138 percent hike in the price of a carton of eggs appears to be a collusive scheme among industry leaders to turn inflationary conditions and an avian flu outbreak into an opportunity to extract egregious profits reaching as high as 40 percent,” Farm Action wrote.
Avian flu outbreaks were discovered in February 2022 in Delaware and spread to 10 states. The worst impacts of the avian flu were over by that spring, but prices kept increasing. According to Farm Action, “No hen losses were reported after the beginning of June except due to sporadic outbreaks in September, October, and November.” The result was that the average flock size for egg-laying hens in any month in 2022 was “never more than 7-8 percent lower than it was a year prior—and in all but two months was never more than 6 percent lower.”
The USDA noted in May 2022 that price increases in eggs were larger than the decrease in production. The USDA believed that the industry would attempt to ramp up egg production to make up for losses, but by December noted that the industry was keeping production pared back, saying that “producers—despite the record-high wholesale prices—are taking a cautious approach to expanding production in the near-term.”
Those bastards! They’re out here killing chickens so they can charge more for the eggs they stole from them?! This whole article is infuriating. Sadly, I believe all of it. Any excuse to stick it to the consumer. The big bad guys here are a conglomerate called Cal-Maine. I’m sure they’re the ringleader with several other large producers in on the racket, but Cal-Maine seems to be Farm Action’s target. The article also said Cal-Maine was trying to use fuel and feed cost increases as further excuses for the price jump. But the company listed a 40% increase in gross profit margins last year. So the real truth is: they’re just awful.
Between this and the recent news out of Iowa about SNAP restrictions, I’m seeing red. We can’t sleep on the crimes being done to those who need food and medication assistance.
And I made the joke above about sending you to the cereal aisle, but as you read, you can’t go there. They’ve been fleecing us for years.
With egg prices more than doubling in the past year, calls are coming for an investigation into possible price gouging.
The spike in egg prices has been attributed to the millions of chickens that were slaughtered to limit the spread of bird flu. https://t.co/GnkCmpH78M
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 25, 2023
Photo credit: Instagram, Twitter, Edourd Gilles, Hello I’m Nik and Tengyart from UnSplash
I love eggs! I eat three eggs at breakfast pretty much everyday despite the warning of too much cholesterol and I did notice the price hike a month ago. It is infuriating to see how the those greedy bastards are able to get away with price gouging. I think I might start to raise chickens in my back yard if the prices of eggs keep going up.
Can’t wait until my daughter’s chickens start laying far the year.
There is a reddit thread called “weird eggs” and I just never knew anything about how eggs form or how deformed they can occasionally turn out to be. It makes sense that farms would not sell those. One time someone got a teeny tiny egg inside of another egg! It’s pretty interesting
Oh, Swack, it’s so exciting! We got chickens about five months ago as an aid to my daughter’s recovery from cancer, two heart. Failures, an anaphylactic episode, and a mini stroke, as well as severe PTSD after an horrific event. We have four regular sized chickens named Betty White, Agnes, Latifah and MargaretL as well as three gorgeous, purpleish bantams named Lavender, Iris and Violet. The bantams are not laying yet, but the big chickens give us 3 to 4 eggs per day. They are lovely animals. Betty White comes when she’s called and she will actually play with us. We love them to bits! We have somehow acquired two Muscovey ducks so will see how they go… 🐔 🐓 🦆 ♥️
PS: I am in Australia and the egg prices have skyrocketed here as well.
@Annakist. My daughter started out with 10, down to 8. She’s had them 6 years now. The laying season here is from about March to Sept (when they molt). After that, not enough sunlight. We get 5-7 eggs a day. She has 8 different types. Named some of them after the golden girls. Sophia crows like a rooster.
@Manda, once in a while we get one laid with out a hard shell.
You might want to read The Egg and I first.
I knew this had to be price gouging when I checked the prices of hatched chicks for spring. They were just slightly higher than the last ones we purchased almost 5 years ago.
We are building a new hutch before spring and buying a new flock. The eagles took the last one out. 😳
So Fort Knox it is…🤔
Thank you to my nephew, who has been raising chickens for eggs for about a year!
We eat organic pasture raised eggs and the price of those hasn’t gone up quite as much. I think because they were overpriced to begin with. At $8.50 a dozen a frittata is still an economical meal for my multigenerational household that includes 5 adults. I really feel for those on a tight food budget. My single mom on SNAP fed us eggs for dinner 2 – 3 nights a week because eggs used to be cheap.
That’s what I keep thinking about–yes they’ve gone up but they last forever (pretty much; I’ve never thrown out eggs for being old) and you get a decent amount for the money. I honestly didn’t realize how cheap they were before, but I couldn’t tell you how much I paid this week for eggs. But, under $2 in some places!! I just don’t think that paying $5 for eggs is that bad. Almost $10 seems high, so I agree that it’s bonkers wherever that is. I, too, have been buying the organic pasture ranged eggs because I saw that thing about those poor chickens raised in the dark, and I couldn’t contribute to that sort of situation, so I think I’m used to paying more anyway
As a farmer, it takes a lot to raise any chicken to egg-laying capability. In Canada, an egg sold as pasture raised and organic must be fed recognized organic feed, which is incredibly expensive. To be an organic farmer in Canada means you have to jump through a lot of hoops, constantly keep up with the changing regulations, a tonne of paperwork and many extra costs. If you don’t hatch out your own chicks, purchasing them in Canada costs anywhere from $3.00 each and up, depending on breed and how many you buy. It takes between 5 and 6 months before a hen will lay an egg. Add another month for the egg to reach sellable size. I don’t feed our hens organic feed, but they go outside onto our acreage every day the weather is safe for them. Things constantly want to kill and eat our chickens: bald eagles, mink, coyotes, the stupid neighbour’s dog, freezing temperatures, avian flu, etc. Electric fences, mink-proof fencing, coops, feeders, waterers, et al., are expensive for small farmers to buy and maintain. Feed prices have doubled in the last three years. There’s the maintenance of their coop, constantly cleaning, washing eggs, sorting eggs, refrigerating the eggs, maintaining a customer base, and local marketing. It’s a business. While we love the lifestyle, it’s not an easy one. I’m not complaining, but $8.50 a dozen for small farm-raised eggs doesn’t even touch how much it costs to get that egg to you. Keep in mind that big corporate farms hold eggs for months in temperature-controlled facilities. That egg in the supermarket is about three months old before it gets to you. If you can buy from a local farmer, the eggs will be fresher and last longer.
I live in Quebec and food prices are ridiculous. I know inflation has a big part to play but recently one of the major grocery chains reported record profits, and hiked shareholder dividends…so don’t tell me my $4 loaf of bread that now costs $5 (and it’s a local product too!) is more costly only because of inflation.
I have no doubt that egg prices are being manipulated too. Corporate greed knows no bounds.
Exactly, that’s capitalism at work. It’s all about the shareholders and making more and more every year so the consumer are the ones getting screwed but they figure we will take it so they will continue to do it and don’t even get me started on stock but backs although I don’t know if they do that in Canada.
Yep. It’s not just the eggs and the butter — it’s about the chance to blame “inflation” for price increases while maximizing profits. Most consumers won’t see this, and many news sources won’t report this — since it offers the opportunity to increase corporate and shareholder profits while also offering a potential political bonus.
It’s def “capitalism at work. It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that after COVID had a disproportionate impact on lower paid “essential workers”, many riskier lower paid jobs went unfilled — so prices on essential staples are going up. Corporations are making huge profits, and more people will be forced to take on these riskier lower paid jobs in order to survive as the basics get priced out of reach. It’s win-win for corporations and the politicians who support them.
Trader Joe’s and —surprisingly, Whole Foods — seem to have had the most stable prices for some of these staples, at least in the DC area.
Those pictures are egg-xactly what I needed to see today!
Lady MTL, prices are getting ridiculous here in Alberta, too. And in addition to price-gouging on groceries (remember the bread price-fixing scandal?), Loblaws is now charging $5.00 for a pay-and-pickup order, up from $3.00. I wouldn’t care if the difference was used to top up frontline staff wages, but, arthritic knees be damned, I’ll hobble my way around Superstore before I put that extra money in Galen Weston’s pocket.
I switched to a breakfast focused more on Greek yogurt since 1. Egg prices are high and 2. The cartons at the lower price (I think it’s about $5 right now) can even be hard to find.
Along with everything going on with the economy and the price of everything going up this just pisses me off. I’m going on an egg boycott after my current carton is done. I hope other Americans do so as well. Hit them where it hurts (their profits) for their greed.
Some of us don’t have that option, unfortunately, since it’s not just the egg prices that are increasing. Frittatas and omelettes are still up there as reasonably easy, reasonably affordable dinner options, particularly for those of us who don’t eat much wheat. I applaud your efforts though!
Regular run-of-mill, non-fertile, non-organic eggs now run between $5.50-7. Tortillas I’ve been buying for years jumped in one week from $1.79 to $2.99. A can of Campbell’s soup is now $1.49. It goes on and on. Produce is up too.
I can’t believe no one has brought up mayo.
The price of mayo (30 fl. oz of “the really good mayo”, if you are a fan of Ina Garten, was $2.99 (pre-pandemic), regular price, and I would get a coupon in the mail from Ralph’s every month that would give me an additional .80-$1 off. Ralph’s also had their usual “buy 5 and pay only $1.99 each, as a valued customer”… and is now charging over $5, for the really good mayo. One, 30 oz. container. The bottom of the mayo shelf, where all of the cheap items go for eyeballs to find them are more expensive than Best Foods/Hellman’s, pre-pandemic. It’s insane.
The short story is those of you that got chickens are a lot smarter than the rest of us.
That’s awful! Greedy profit piggies
I’m really fortunate to have a several local farm stores that sell their own eggs. One will even deliver as part of a farmer’s market collaborative delivery they starting due to COVID back in 2019
They’ve always been a little bit more expensive than the cheapest eggs in the supermarket, but alway much lower priced than the fancy ones. And right now, they are as cheap as any. They are free range (with limits… one farm realized their chickens in the field were keeping the local hawks nicely feed, so they built a giant outside pen with a screened roof to keep them safe)
The prices haven’t really changed in a few years, aside from one place dropping their discount for more than one dozen and putting in a limit of x dozen per customer.
While I’ve noticed that they’re often completely out of eggs lately, the egg prices at my Trader Joe’s have not changed. I get the brown organic cage free jumbos and they’re $4.99 and they always have been. I’m in California.
I got “pandemic chickens” like a lot of people and occasionally sell excess eggs from a driveway stand to offset their care and feeding. This year feed prices almost doubled at my local Agway and I felt ghastly about asking $5/dozen for my eggs … but then I saw people posting about store prices skyrocket and felt less like a monster.
Sounds like Cal-Maine has some eggsplaining to do!
Price of eggs has gone up 3x for me. It’s just my husband and I, so I usually get an 18pk and that lasts us a while unless we get cravings for deviled eggs lol. I think there should at least be an investigation – worst case it is actually bird flu. But I know for a fact lumber was being price gouged a couple years ago so it wouldn’t surprise me if Big Egg was trying to pull a fast one.
The prices of food are out of hand.
Why something isn’t being done, I do not understand.
Eggs, butter, cheese, bread, produce, canned soup, meat have all had prices jump, and continue to increase.
Most of us are barely getting by with these cost of living increases.
Before C19, I recall a dozen eggs being .89 — Now eggs are $5.19 at my local store.
I don’t eat a lot of meat so eggs were an easy protein but, I watch every penny these days.
As a cynical American, I predict that “inflation “ will be out of control here for basics until the next election cycle. I think that there are very real, unpredictable factors behind this current bout of inflation. I also think that the opportunity for corporate profits and to blame the current presidential administration for “inflation “ is something that many corporate and political warlords are gleefully taking advantage of. I hope I’m wrong though.
I have to agree sadly. During the midterm elections, Gas dropped to $2.59 or less. Now the prices have shot up to $3.59 this week, here in Florida. And I’m sure it will continue to rise. These times are especially hard for Agriculture farmers and their families. Florida Orange Grove owners, can’t afford to have what fruit is left on the trees after the hurricane and greening to be picked. They offer farmers less and less per pound of solids, and Mexico and Brazil are taking off. And no BIG government is bailing farmers out. The price of Beef is outrageous, but the farmers aren’t getting paid anymore than before, in fact the price per lb for a steer has gone down. And the price of fertilizer, feed and care has gone up. Include that with the increase in wages that have to be paid. American farmers are being forced out of the businesses, that many families have kept in the family for generations. Keep buying those eggs from local growers! Please try to buy locally grown and sourced produce from America. And yes even American raised proteins. Not all of the farmers out there are huge conglomerates.
Meanwhile people with uncontrolled seizures and other conditions can use use keto diet which is egg heavy when medication doesn’t work. It’s unfair to the average person, but especially people who are dependent on carb free diets.
I read that the reason was high grain prices because of the Russia Ukraine war. Regardless, it’s ridiculous. Chickens will eat anything. I know this because I’ve kept chickens for over 20 years. Get a chicken. You get an egg a day and they are great pets.
If only Taylor Swift had an egg price issue so Congress would investigate.
Don’t worry. She will write a song about eggs breaking her heart and everyone will be at attention.
Thank goodness we have a small backyard flock.
They’re really outdoor pets and are probably the most pampered hens in our neck of the woods.
The shortsightedness is astounding. Price increases that are too high or too fast cause demand-destruction. High gas prices cause people to buy more fuel-efficient cars so they buy less gas in the future, even if prices drop. There’s a sweet spot where the consumer will accept price increases and these idiots have vastly overshot that by assuming that a plausible explanation would somehow change math and human behavior. Restaurants will change menus. Producers will alter formulas. People will develop new habits. Families will lose their farms after getting in debt to the “company store” chicken producers. Corporate chicken is made out of human and animal suffering.
It’s also important to remember that 1/3 of the total number of dollars in existence were created within the last 5 years. They printed a lot of money for pandemic stimulus so now each of your dollars is only worth roughly 2/3 of what it used to buy. We’re going to be paying that collective credit card bill for a decade at least, which makes the waste and fraud even more hideously offensive. And the poor get it the worst as always.
You NAILED it! Thank you! The American Farmers are getting the short end of the stick and losing family owned farms because they can’t afford to grow crops anymore. And the rest of the American population is being cheated as well. People are going deeper into debt, with no foreseeable way to pay it off in the near future. Something has to change. I don’t know how it will be done, or who can fix it…..but someone has to step up to the plate and at least try to make a change. I honestly don’t care who! I’m so tired of politicians and their agenda, to make more money for themselves and their friends and cohorts.
Luckily, I usually just buy eggs for when I want to bake something special and whatever is left I eat myself with GimmeLean vegetarian sausage. This happens only once in a awhile.
I wish I could have chickens where I live, but I can’t. I’ve been reading different articles from different countries that having chickens also decreases landfill waste. Not only do families get protein, but they are throwing less away because of feeding chickens. I hope that families who can do this get some chickens. There is all kinds of information about what you can feed chickens, etc., so you can learn before you get them. I love eggs and I would raise chickens in a heart beat.
For those of us living in towns or apartments, keeping chickens is not allowed.
Several folks have tried getting permits to keep chickens in my town, with fenced yards and coop blueprints and The Mayor and City Council repeatedly “No.”
We just had the mid-term elections but I don’t see any useful changes coming from our elected officials. Yet. On any issues.
I’m in Minnesota, a traditional blue state with a Dem Govnr on his 2nd term. We currently have a State Budget Surplus of $17BILLION. Look at that surplus again. Someone needs to explain why that kind of money isn’t being moved into Human Services, Food, Senior Care, etc. Don’t say Education, MN budgets 40% to Education.
The crooks are getting bolder, and we the people are getting used.
(end of rant, sorry)