(AP)– U.S. egg prices have fallen 60% from last year’s record highs, making it easier for consumers to fill their Easter baskets and Passover Seder plates.
Bird flu was to blame for elevated retail prices during the first five months of 2025, and the course of the highly contagious disease is a big reason why prices are much lower now. An outbreak forced farmers and commercial producers to slaughter entire broods of egg-laying hens, but ebbing cases in the second half of last year helped restore egg supplies, said Mark Jordan, the executive director of agricultural research firm LEAP Market Analytics.
The stubborn outbreak is still affecting U.S. poultry flocks, with the number of infected commercial flocks rising in March. But farmers have been rapidly replenishing flocks that died or had to be destroyed. Between July 2024 and July 2025 the number of egg-type chicks hatched in the U.S. rose 8%. It was the first sustained and substantial increase in the availability of specially-bred layer chicks since the bird flu outbreak began in 2022, Jordan said.
The Trump administration’s decision to import nearly 1 billion eggs last year also helped lower prices, Jordan said, although imports have since returned to more normal levels. The U.S. also exported fewer eggs last year to help boost domestic supplies.
But what’s good for consumers isn’t necessarily good for farmers, who are finding it difficult to recoup their costs as egg prices plummet. They also may have to pay more for feed, including corn and soybean meal, because of the Iran war.
“Farmers are no strangers to volatility. It’s part of the business. But in recent months, many have been selling eggs at or below the cost of production,” said Emily Metz, the president and CEO of the America Egg Board, a trade group.
Here’s a look at U.S. egg prices by the numbers, according to government figures:
— $2.50 per dozen: Average U.S. price for a dozen eggs in February.
— $6.23 per dozen: Average U.S. price for a dozen eggs in March 2025, which was an all-time high.
— 315.8 million: Number of egg-laying hens in the U.S. as of March 1. That’s 8% higher than last year.
— 45 million: Number of egg-laying hens in Iowa, the top U.S. state for egg production.
— 205.7 million: Number of chickens and other birds in commercial and backyard flocks that died or were culled due to bird flu since February 2022.
— 5.22 million: Number of chickens and other birds that died or were culled because of bird flu in March 2026. That is more than double the number affected in March 2025.
— 657%: The percentage increase in U.S. imports of shell eggs in 2025 compared to the year before.
— $1.05: Average cost for farmers to produce a dozen eggs, not including labor and transportation, according to the American Egg Board. In late March, the national average wholesale price of eggs was $1.17 per dozen.
— 40,000: Number of real eggs that will be used for this year’s White House Easter Egg Roll,
[Copyright 2026 The Associated Press.]
