Egg Prices Expected to Drop

Friday, February 10th, 2023 -- 8:01 AM

(By Hope Kirwan, Wisconsin Public Radio) Consumer egg prices have been high for months, sparking an abundance of jokes on social media, some conspiracy theories and even an accusation of price gouging by a farm advocacy group.

John Brunnquell is CEO of Egg Innovations, which produces free-range and pasture-raised eggs and has 15 farms in Wisconsin. Brunnquell said industry leaders are very aware of all the talk, but he said there's no scheme behind the price jump.

"There was no cynical master plan by the egg industry to stimulate prices," he said. "There's no evil conspiracy that poor feed is going out so birds lay less eggs." Brunnquell said 2022 was a challenging year for the egg industry, starting with higher supply costs due to inflation.

"Everything we buy, from cartons and boxes and freight and fuel, pretty much every input we purchase went up in cost in 2022," he said. The supply of eggs was hit by highly-pathogenic avian influenza last spring and returned in the fall, which Brunnquell said led to the death of around 38 million laying hens across the country.

With fewer eggs available, he said wholesale prices ended up hitting record highs. But in the first five weeks of 2023, those prices have come down around 60 percent from what they were in November and December.

"We were trading (wholesale) eggs at about $5.40 a dozen, and those same eggs today we're trading at $1.70," Brunnquell said. "There's about a four-week lag usually from wholesale prices to consumer retail prices. So over the next month or so, we should see a significant decrease in selling prices at the grocery store."

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