Are eggs the next toilet paper - spurring panicked consumers to empty store shelves like many did when they feared shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Where are the eggs and why are egg prices so high seems to be the question and vent among consumers nationwide.
Rising egg prices and shortages were already on the minds of consumers as a bird flu outbreak in the U.S. caused the product price to skyrocket and supplies to be tight starting in 2022.
Now, consumers nationwide are sharing on social media that they found bare shelves over the weekend when they went searching for eggs at grocery stores or in some instances faced limits on how many cartons they could buy to prevent stockpiling.
Consumers are creating a shortage because of an issue that's both real and perceived, similar to what has happened with toilet paper in the past, said Saloni Vastani, an associate professor of marketing at Emory University.
"Egg prices are going up because of the avian flu, but that's driving people to buy more eggs than they usually do because they're anticipating higher prices and reduced grocery store supply," Vastani told USA TODAY.
That constrains the supply both because of bird flu, which results in some eggs being destroyed before they reach store shelves, and over-buying by some shoppers, she said. Vastani has heard of some people who would usually buy a dozen eggs now buying four dozen.
"And as shelves empty, there's more panic and more of a rush to buy more eggs," said Vastani, who specializes in pricing at Emory's Goizueta Business School.
Vastani said consumers may also be confusing egg price increases and shortages with worries about consumer goods price increases from tariffs the Trump administration is threatening on Canada and China. A proposed tariff on Mexico was given a one-month reprieve Monday.
"There is some connection to the threat of tariffs and egg prices. Many people are assuming that egg prices are going up because of tariffs," Vastani said.
"Also, this is a time when some industries are trying to sneak in price increases because their customers will think it's because of tariffs," she added.
Neil Saunders, a retail analyst at the research and analytics firm GlobalData agreed that talk about shortages and constantly increasing prices is nudging people to stock up.
"This creates a vicious cycle of higher demand at a time when supply is already under pressure," Saunders told USA TODAY. "It is going to take quite some time for the market to normalize."
The major reasons experts and consumers are pointing to are a bird flu outbreak, the rising cost of doing business, and, in some locales, changing laws, USA TODAY has previously reported. As for when things will cool down, that has been harder to predict, experts have told USA TODAY.
Comparing egg prices from December to December 2023, the latest price information available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index, egg prices have increased nationwide by 65.1%. The average cost in December 2024 for a dozen Grade A eggs in the U.S. was $4.15 compared to $2.51 in December 2023. The next Consumer Price Index is due out in mid February, which would update prices through January.
The $3.65 per dozen price is just an average and prices have increased since December. According to the latest USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) report on Jan. 31, the wholesale price for a carton of large eggs in the New York market rose to $7.25 per dozen. That was up from $6.06 a dozen in its Jan. 3 report. The Midwest region saw prices at $7.03 per dozen, up from $5.75 in early January and California wholesale prices softened to $8.72 per dozen in the Jan. 31 report compared to $8.97 on Jan. 3.
According to a USDA report out Jan. 24, retail egg prices increased by 8.4% in December 2024 and continue to experience volatile month-to-month changes.
While eggs are becoming hard to find in the store, Emily Metz, president and CEO of the American Egg Board, said more eggs are on the way.
"Eggs are important to Americans, and we know people are frustrated. While the egg supply is strained, people can rest assured that eggs are still coming," Metz told USA TODAY. "Because eggs are a perishable food, deliveries to grocery stores are frequent, and farmers are working around the clock with their retail customers to replenish empty shelves -- usually within 24 hours."
There are some reports of some retailers limiting the number of egg cartons consumers can buy in order to help stave off shortages or stockpiling.
A Walmart spokesperson said the retailer was not limiting quantities.
"Walmart does not currently have a purchase limit on eggs, and although supply is very tight in some areas, we're working with suppliers to try and help meet customer demand, while striving to keep prices as low as possible," the spokesperson told USA TODAY.
Inquiries to Trader Joe's, Aldi, Whole Foods and Amazon were not returned by press time.
The bird flu outbreak strain, H5N1, which started among poultry flocks and wild birds in Europe in the fall of 2020 before moving to the U.S., Africa, the Middle East and Asia, has grown to become the largest such outbreak in the U.S.
Though some states avoided last year's outbreaks, many have recently reported a resurgence of the virus, which the USDA reported killed about 17.2 million egg-laying hens in November and December. This accounted for nearly half of all birds killed by the virus in 2024, the federal department has said, according to a previous story by USA TODAY.
As of last week, there was also another loss of 14 million birds with outbreaks in seven states - Arizona, California, North Carolina, Ohio, Missouri, Indiana and Washington.
By Feb. 3, the virus had infected more than 153.64 million poultry across all 50 U.S. states since January 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Because of the spread, infected birds have been selectively slaughtered across the U.S., including sometimes millions of birds at a single location, USA TODAY has previously reported.
The American Egg Board in a statement said "in the U.S. we've lost nearly 50 million laying hens in the past year to bird flu."
"The reality is the system for egg production is both complex and time sensitive. While we can'tpredict the future, what we know right now is that our system is strained -- and HPAI remains aclear and present risk to poultry flocks. It's going to take a sustained period with no additionalHPAI detections on egg farms to stabilize supply," the Egg Board said.
The volume of eggs sold at retail has also been up year-over-year for 22 consecutive months, the Egg Board said, "and we're just coming out of the highest demand season of the year -- the winter holidays -- when eggs sales increase significantly due to holiday baking and entertaining."
Those forces combined are causing wholesale prices to spike and egg shortages in stores, the Egg Board said.
Egg shortage 2025: Egg costs predicted to rise in 2025, despite Vance saying 'prices are going to come down'
President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance campaigned on lowering grocery prices, as early as the administration's first day in office. During a Jan. 26 interview on CBS News' Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, Vance was pressed about when gas and grocery prices would come down.
During Vance's interview, he said several of the executive orders signed by Trump will help drive prices down, adding that they "have caused, already, jobs to start coming back into our country, which is a core part of lowering prices."
But Vance said it would take time. "Prices are going to come down, but it's going to take a little bit of time," Vance told Brennan in the interview.
It's unclear when the cost of eggs may drop, but it could be after 2025, as previously reported by USA TODAY.
One of the main determiners of egg prices will be farmers and producers and how long it takes them to recover their stocks of healthy laying hens.
The USDA forecasts table egg production going down in 2025, "reflecting a smaller laying flock as a result of losses to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), as well as lower lay rates."
According to a USDA Food Price Outlook on Jan. 24, egg prices are predicted to stay high in 2025. They are expected to increase 20.3% during the year, compared with about 2.2% for overall food prices.
In a "best-case scenario," with no more bird losses with bird flu, though there were 14 million lost in the last two weeks, it could take more than nine months for the replacements of those lost hens to have eggs that show up in grocery stores, said Matt Sutton-Vermeulen, principal in the agriculture and food practice of Kearney, a global strategy and management consulting firm.
"So prices could continue to rise in the next twelve months due to the persistence of the virus and the fact that we are seeing outbreaks in facilities from coast to coast and north to south with some of the best, state of the art biosecurity systems in place," Sutton-Vermeulen told USA TODAY.
Betty Lin-Fisher is a consumer reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at blinfisher@USATODAY.com or follow her on X, Facebook or Instagram @blinfisher. Sign up for our free The Daily Money newsletter, which will include consumer news on Fridays, here.