Remember Egg Prices?

We heard a lot about eggs in early 2025. The average price per dozen reached an all-time high of $8 last February, up from a historical level of around $1. This was attributed to the greed of Big Egg, the failures of the Trump administration, and California’s regulatory policies — among other sinister explanations.

Actually, it was simple supply and demand. Egg producers were wracked in late 2024 and early 2025 by a terrible strain of avian flu, affecting 44 million egg-laying hens out of a total supply of 375 million. That represented more than an 11 percent decline in a very short amount of time. Demand for eggs is sticky, meaning that a large price increase is required for people to reduce their egg consumption even slightly. Therefore, for the market to clear with constrained supply, prices needed to skyrocket.

Fortunately, the hen supply could rebound almost as quickly as it fell once the avian flu abated. NPR reports that “flu season has done far less damage to egg farms this winter than last. Whether that’s thanks to farmers’ increased safety precautions, changes in the flu virus or just plain luck, there are about 9 million more hens laying eggs in the U.S. now than there were this time last year.”

You can see how egg prices have responded to higher supply — just as economists would expect:

Egg farmers aren’t too happy about the collapse in prices, but consumers sure ought to be. Unfortunately, people hear a lot more about when prices suddenly rise than when they fall.

Perhaps government intervention had something to do with sparing chicken flocks from avian flu. What is more likely is that farmers adapted to the challenge through millions of private decisions, learning best practices from one another in real time. As usual, the most reliable protection against market fluctuations is the market itself.