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Egg prices reach $4.95 national average in January

Egg prices continue to soar higher across the U.S.

Dr. Valerie Kilders is an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University and focuses her research on food and agribusiness marketing. She tells Brownfield the Consumer Price Index for eggs was up 15% in January. “That’s the largest increase that we’ve seen for the eggs index since June of 2015,” she said. “We really are seeing an almost nine and a half to 10-year high increase within the egg prices over the last month.”

Kilders says the index showed the average price was $4.95 per dozen eggs and she’s concerned about the impact on consumers. “That’s a big increase. We’re closing in on double the price for consumers for a dozen eggs.”

Kilders says the increases have been driven by the avian influenza crisis. She says the high prices are great incentives for impacted facilities to return to production quickly.

AUDIO: Purdue’s Dr. Valerie Kilders discusses U.S. egg prices