Your eggs won’t get any cheaper in 2025
The USDA says egg prices could rise as much as 40% this year.
Transcript:
Conway Gittens: If you’re suffering from egg-price exhaustion, I have bad news for you, egg-flation is about to get even worse. New predictions from the US Department of Agriculture foresee another 41 percent jump in the price of eggs for 2025. That’s double the forecast given at the start of the year and comes on top of a double-digit increase in 2024.
The price spike for a dozen eggs has been relentless. The national average hit a record of $4.95 in January, a whopping 53 percent surge from the same time last year. And that’s just the national average. Go to some cities and a dozen eggs can set you back by ten bucks or more. According to the government’s Consumer Price Index for January, the egg component saw its biggest jump in a decade, and almost single-handedly pushed the entire index for food-at-home up 2 percent from a year ago.
Related: Popular breakfast chain charges customers extra for eggs
The egg-laying bird population is being devastated by bird flu. Nearly 19 million birds had to be put to death in January alone, that’s the worst number since the outbreak started back in 2022, and more than the culling seen in November and December combined.
Some consumers are taking matters into their own hands. Some are crossing the border into Mexico and Canada for cheaper eggs, while others have turned to backyard farming to produce their own eggs. Restaurant chains are tacking on egg surcharges to menus. Denny’s is the latest to do so at some of its locations, following on the heels of a fifty-cent egg surcharge at Waffle House. McDonald’s and Cracker Barrel, however, told their customers not to expect an extra fee for eggs.
That’ll do it for your Daily Briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, I’m Conway Gittens with TheStreet.
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