Pricey egg prices leading into Easter may be more because of market worries, pandemic stock shortages than bird flu

We're paying more for Easter eggs this year, but it's not because of the highly pathogenic bird flu that's taken out nearly 25 million commercial and backyard birds in the U.S. (most of them egg layers), according to a new American Farm Bureau Federation analysis.

In fact, egg inventory is 38 percent higher now than it was during the last major bird flu outbreak in 2014-2015. But inflation-adjusted egg prices are still almost 15% higher now than they were then, according to the Agriculture Department's Agricultural Marketing Service, Chris Clayton reports for DTN/The Progressive Farmer.

Consumer and trader worries about the bird flu may be partly responsible for the higher egg prices. "Today's pricing suggests that the market doesn't necessarily believe the industry has HPAI contained quite yet," AFBF noted in the report. Another issue, a recent CoBank report found: egg producers have had a hard time keeping up with consumer demand during the pandemic. "Typically, the industry increases demand ahead of Easter and scales back in the summer when demand wanes, CoBank stated. But the number of egg layers was already down about 7 million hens compared to 2020 and prior years before the pandemic hit," Clayton reports.