(Bloomberg) -- Holiday bakers are looking at record US prices for eggs as an intensifying bird flu outbreak has killed millions of the nation’s laying hens.
In the Midwest, a dozen large eggs costs an average of $5.67 this week, according to the benchmark indicator from price-reporting service Expana. Prices topped the previous all-time high of $5.46 set in December 2022.
It’s a “potent combination of avian flu-related production losses and heightened retail demand throughout the holiday baking season,” said Karyn Rispoli, Expana’s managing editor for eggs in the Americas.
Some 17 million egg layers and younger birds known as pullets have been killed since mid-October. That’s made it one of the worst stretches in the current bird-flu outbreak, which was first confirmed in an American flock in February 2022, according to Rispoli.
The virus also jumped to other species including dairy cattle, while a person was hospitalized with a severe case of H5N1 bird flu in Louisiana this week.
Consumers have seen inflation slow in many foods even as prices for eggs have been soaring again — at a time when many bake cakes and cookies for winter holidays. The demand pick up is constraining supplies, especially in states with cage-free requirements for chickens such as California.
“The resulting supply imbalance has forced some customers to contend with allocations or canceled purchase orders, leaving shelves empty in certain stores nationwide,” Rispoli said.
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