As of last week, Midwest large eggs — the benchmark for eggs sold in their shells — cost just $0.94 per dozen in the wholesale market, according to Urner Barry, an independent price reporting agency. That’s a sharp fall from $5.46 per carton just six months ago. Why the decline? It’s because of a reversal of supply-demand trends that caused prices to spike in the first place. Last year, deadly avian flu wiped out a significant number of egg-laying hens, reducing egg supplies.
Headlines aside, shoppers’ demand for eggs typically drops in late spring, experts say. “This is the time of year where demand cools off a little bit,” said Brian Earnest, lead economist for animal protein in CoBank. Demand for eggs typically rises around the winter holidays — when people bake and eat breakfast at home — and though it slows in the first quarter, it usually stays relatively strong. Not so this year.