Egg Prices Dropped 6.7% From January to February Customers might be seeing some relief on their omelets.
By Gabrielle Bienasz •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Some egg-citing news is in for omelet lovers.
In a government data drop, egg prices finally slowed down, according to CNN.
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Tuesday showed that egg prices were down 6.7% in February compared to January. (Still, overall grocery bills rose 0.3% in the same time period.)
The price for wholesale eggs dropped dramatically in early February, per CNBC. According to Urner Barry, a market research firm focused on things like meat, eggs, and seafood, the price for wholesale eggs dropped to $2.61 a dozen that week.
Compare that to the price of a dozen eggs wholesale on Dec. 19: $5.43. As the outlet noted, that's a drop of 52%.
Angel Rubio, a senior data analyst at the firm, said prices "collapsed."
"That's a big, big adjustment downward," Rubio said.
Consumers saw sky-high egg prices for several months, which were driven by several factors including an outbreak of avian bird flu, which killed over 58 million birds in 47 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Last December, prices for eggs in Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada went up 64%. This led to things like waiting lists at small-scale farms selling fresh eggs.
Brian Moscogiuri, a global trade strategist at Eggs Unlimited, told the outlet that lower demand post-holiday season, and a few weeks without new avian flu outbreaks, have given egg producers and sellers a break.
However, he added, because avian flu has been found among non-chickens, it's still "a major risk heading into the spring migration," Moscogiuri told the outlet.
