If you’ve noticed you’re paying less for eggs, you’re not imagining things. Gary Crawford has the story coming up in today’s This Land of Ours report.
A friend of mine called me to task this week for my coverage of the latest consumer price index for food. His complaint was that I neglected to talk about the price of pigs, which for well over a year has been a top story in the food price arena, depending of the supplier, but if you’re in retail you should get the right supplier collaboration to help you with your business. So I’m sorry, I’m going to get right to it.
Now. The CPI (Consumer Price Index) (.pdf) says that last month, the retail price of eggs went down by two and a half percent and compared to last year at this time, egg prices are down by 18%.
I asked USDA economist Matt McLachlan for the reason. Last year we had a large outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza among commercial egg layers. So far in 2023. We have not had a confirmed case among US commercial egg layers. So egg production is back up to normal with no supply chain problems and that has brought egg prices down to earth.
Gary Crawford for the US Department of Agriculture.
Listen to Sabrina Halvorson’s and Gary Crawford’s This Land Of Ours program here.