When you needed the price of eggs to lower throughout Donald Trump’s new presidency, we apologize prematurely.
In keeping with a brand new Division of Agriculture report, egg costs are projected to swell by 41.1% this 12 months as a result of a chook flu outbreak that continues to devastate flocks. The company additionally predicted all meals costs would rise 3.4% in 2025.
This up to date prediction is so alarming as a result of it’s greater than double the division’s forecast from only one month in the past. Because the Every day Kos reported earlier this month, a earlier USDA prediction estimated that egg costs might rise by “as much as 20% this year.”
The federal company famous that retail egg costs had been already climbing. In January, retail egg costs surged by 13.8%, following an 8.4% value improve in December.
“Retail egg prices continue to experience volatile month-to-month changes due to an outbreak of [highly pathogenic avian influenza] that began in 2022,” the division stated in its report. “HPAI contributes to elevated egg prices by reducing egg-layer flocks and egg production.”
The chook flu outbreak already has some eating places feeling the pinch. Earlier this month, the beloved 24/7 breakfast chain Waffle Home introduced a 50-cent surcharge per egg.
As well as, main grocery chains like Costco and Dealer Joe’s are limiting the variety of cartons that clients can purchase.
President Donald Trump’s administration has tried to deflect blame for rising costs. At one level, Trump even claimed inflation is “back” however wasn’t his fault. And on Wednesday, he spoke about rising egg costs in a unusually distant method.
“Eggs are a disaster,” he stated. “The secretary of agriculture is gonna be showing you a chart that’s actually mind-boggling, what’s happened, how low they were with us and how high they are now.”
However Trump definitely bears some duty for the value will increase. In spite of everything, whereas he and different Republican candidates targeted on rising costs final 12 months, reducing costs hasn’t been a precedence for the celebration since Trump took workplace. As an alternative, the GOP has been laborious at work dismantling and defunding the well being companies that would assist handle the impacts of chook flu. They usually’re discovering the time to guarantee billionaires get much more federal tax breaks.
However even when the president denies involvement in rising costs, there are penalties.
In keeping with a value tracker revealed by CBS Information, the price of a dozen eggs has skyrocketed 219% since 2019.
In the meantime, simply final month, the common value for a dozen eggs hit a whopping $4.95, in accordance with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s up from $2.52 a 12 months prior. In some locations, a carton of a dozen eggs can price over $7.
In a Wednesday op-ed in The Wall Avenue Journal, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins—a Trump appointee—outlined her model of a plan to decrease egg costs. Regardless of falsely alleging that former President Joe Biden “did little to address” the chook flu outbreak, Rollins stated the Agriculture Division beneath Trump “will invest up to $1 billion to curb this crisis and make eggs affordable again.”
To that finish, Rollins stated her company would work with Elon Musk’s nightmarish crew on the so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity to repurpose no matter cash the fee claims to save lots of, and reinvest it into “long-term solutions to avian flu.”
The USDA reported that the avian flu outbreak impacted practically 19 million industrial egg-laying chickens in January 2025 alone, representing “the highest monthly total since the outbreak began in 2022,” in accordance with the brand new report.
Sadly for shoppers, it’s not simply egg costs which are anticipated to rise over the approaching 12 months. the USDA expects beef and veal costs to extend (3.2%), together with costs of fat and oils (0.6%), recent fruit (2.4%), nonalcoholic drinks (4.4%), pork (1.2%), and sugar and sweets (6.4%)
Poultry costs are predicted to expertise no change on common in 2025, and Trump will certainly take credit score for this constructive information whereas ignoring all the opposite unfavorable developments occurring beneath his administration.
