Inflation is rising, why are you paying $10 for a dozen eggs? 

Year over year prices for eggs are up 53% due to inflation amongst a plethora of reasons: 

• supply chain issues
• delivery delays
•  labor shortages 
• And the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI)

Moving eggs from farm to store is a hefty process which can be hindered very easily, all of which consume more money. Fuel prices rising causing shipping eggs to be more expensive, shortage of truck drivers which makes the process longer, and lack of people wanting to work in the poultry industry already. Emily Pollen, a credible journalist explains, “Workers are needed at every stage, from feeding hens to packing cartons. Without enough hands-on deck, productivity drops, and costs rise.”. With so many negatives in this process, eggs are getting harder and harder to bring to stores forcing more money to be asked to meet the demand of what it takes. 

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) or, The Avian Flu:

HPAI is an air-borne flu affecting many species but targeting egg-laying hens. This flu has been the primary cause of egg prices drastically rising since 2022. Why is this outbreak affecting prices more than the previous one in 2015? Bernt Nelson, an economist shares, “there are a lot more backyard flocks in the U.S. compared to 2015. This means more birds that are vulnerable to getting the virus, and more opportunities for the virus to spread along the flyways where migratory birds travel.”.

All of the money spent on these eggs does not to the farmers either. Farmers are actually losing a lot of birds due to this flu, paired with the numerous other reasons hindering egg production and delivery just causes a tangled web of problems where the only solution in sight is… raising prices.