Egg Prices Jump Before Holidays as Bird Flu Spreads

Americans stocking up on holiday cooking essentials may be greeted with an unwelcome surprise in the grocery aisles: higher prices for eggs, spurred by an intensifying bird flu outbreak.Food inflation has cooled significantly from its pandemic peaks in 2022.But consumers are still grappling with persistently high prices.

The frustration is particularly acute when it comes to grocery staples, so much so that food costs took center stage in this year’s presidential election.Many voters, who are not yet feeling much relief from cooling inflation, blamed the Biden administration for the sticker shock, even though much of the surge in food prices was tied to the coronavirus pandemic and other global events over which the White House has little control.President-elect Donald J.Trump made lowering grocery prices a key part of his campaign, though in an interview with Time magazine after his victory, he conceded that bringing prices down would be “hard.” Mr.

Trump’s proposed tariffs on imports from China, Mexico and Canada have also stoked concern about an uptick in prices for a host of products.Egg prices, which have fluctuated this year, are perhaps one of the most tangible barometers of food costs for consumers.They climbed 8.2 percent in November, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, helping to drive an acceleration in overall food inflation.

A dozen grade-A eggs cost $3.65 on average, up from $2.52 at the start of the year and above the roughly $2 average when the pandemic hit the United States in the spring of 2020.In recent weeks, the bird flu outbreak has wiped out flocks of egg-laying hens, causing wholesale prices to surge just as many Americans are planning holiday recipes that call for more eggs, like cookies, eggnog and latkes.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into y...