USDA: Egg Prices Moving Lower

According to USDA, wholesale egg prices are coming down a bit, but U.S. egg production continues to run below a year ago.  USDA livestock analyst Shayle Shagam looked back on last month’s numbers.

“During December we produced about 652 million dozen which was about 6.6% below a year ago," Shagam pointed out.  "Now those eggs were being produced by approximately 308 million layers, which was also down about 5.8% from a year ago.”

Shagam said bird flu continues to cause losses of layers as producers have to destroy entire flocks to keep the virus from spreading.  He added that, lower production and holiday demand sent wholesale egg prices soaring just before Christmas to about $540 a dozen.  However, the latest numbers from USDA late last week.

“We were looking at egg prices of about $3.34 dozen, so we have seen egg prices come down but we're still talking about fairly strong egg prices.”

Wholesale egg prices this year expected average $2.05 a dozen.  Those prices were closed to $1.18 a dozen in 2021.

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