'Are the Chickens On Strike?': Consumers Furious As Egg Prices Skyrocket Over 64% In One Month In Some U.S. States Inflation and the bird flu are seemingly to blame for the sky-high egg prices this year.
By Emily Rella
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Once (and still) a beloved American diet staple, eggs are starting to look like more of a pricey luxury — and omelet fans everywhere are quite scrambled about it.
New research from Datasembly and the Consumer Price Index shows that the prices of eggs are continuing to rise across the country.
In Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada egg prices increased a whopping 64% in December 2022. Oregon, California, and Washington saw price increases of 18%.
The most recent data from the Consumer Price Index shows that eggs rose 11.1% on average Iin the U.S. in December.
Naturally, egg lovers have taken to social media to air their grievances and crack their emotions wide open.
With the price of eggs getting so high my financial advice is to buy one chicken for $10 and get free eggs for the rest of your life
— greg (@greg16676935420) January 11, 2023
Someone please explain to me why eggs are all of a sudden so expensive. What happened? I just looked on line to check the price of eggs after seeing all these memes and Kroger says an 18 ct of large white eggs is $7.49, that can't be correct.
— Jennifer Strahan (@j_grieshaber) January 12, 2023
With the outrageous price of eggs, we're gonna have to paint potatoes this Easter.
— Freedom (@freedomspeech50) January 11, 2023
wtf is going on with the price of eggs? Are the chickens on strike?
— Civil Roar (@Civil_Roar_) January 9, 2023
The CPI also found that the overall food at home index (which measures grocery prices) increased by 11.8% from December 2021 to December 2022 with cereal and bakery items rising by 16.1%.
Other major grocery groups like meats, poultry, and dairy saw price increases ranging from 7.7% to 15.3%.
Though inflation is ripe in the egg industry due to higher labor and fuel costs, recent bird flu outbreaks are also to blame.
In November, the CDC reported that the U.S. was approaching a record number of birds affected by the bird flu this year.
Over 49 million birds (though not all egg-laying) in 46 states have either died or been killed due to bird flu and related infections so far this year.
