Egg prices start to drop after bird flu shortage caused massive hikes

Shoppers may finally feel some relief in the egg aisle after waning demand caused steep price declines over the past week, according to new data.Egg prices jumped 10.4% in February as a rampant bird flu outbreak continued to cause widespread shortages, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Wednesday.But prices for large white eggs dropped $1.20 to $6.85 a dozen as of March 7 – down 16% from a staggering $8.15 price tag two weeks prior, the Department of Agriculture said in a report.“With these sharp increases in prices in the last two years basically, at some point, the average consumer is starting to realize it’s just not affordable for them, so there’s just sort of a drop in demand,” food science consultant Bryan Quoc Le told The Post.“How can people be paying $8 to $16 for a carton of eggs?” he added.“It’s just not feasible, especially nowadays…as people are tightening up their wallets.”Wholesale egg prices plunged for the first time in months as withering demand and slowing outbreaks gave some producers a chance to recover, according to the USDA and Trading Economics.The avian flu outbreaks grew more localized over the past few weeks, giving the New York market a break while continuing to hamper California and the Midwest, the USDA said.More than 166,000 birds have been impacted by the outbreak – making it the deadliest in US history – since January 2022, leaving shoppers to deal with empty shelves at the grocery store and shockingly high prices, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.And the Department of Justice has launched an investigation into whether producers have illegally conspired to further restrict supply in a price gouging scheme, according to The Wall Street Journal.While it may have been a long time coming, the recent price adjustment – sending prices as low as $5.18 on Wednesday, according to Trading Economics – likely isn’t here to stay.Demand will likely spike again in April and inflate pri...