Omaha, Neb. – Egg producers blame bird flu outbreak To boost prices for registered maximum Egg buyers.
Defense groups, Democratic legislators and a member of the Federal Trade Commission are asking for government investigation after egg prices were reduced to a $ 4.95 record average for dozen this month. He Trump administration did reveal a plan This week to combat avian flu, but it remains to be seen how much egg prices could relieve, a key boost of inflation.
“Donald Trump promised to reduce food prices in the ‘first day’, but with the prices of eggs without control, he He fired the workers full of containing avian flu. Working families need relief now, “Senator Elizabeth Warren said in a statement.
The industry, and most experts directly blame bird flu. More than 166 million birds have been sacrificed to contain the virus. About 30 million egg layers have been deleted only since January, which significantly interrupted egg supplies. The long -standing policy of the Department of Agriculture has been to kill entire flocks every time the virus is found on a farm.
As a result, the number of egg layers has fallen throughout the country in approximately 12% since before sprouting 292 million birds, according to an estimate of February 1, USDA, but another 11 million layers of eggs have been killed since then, so it is probably worse. When prices shot at $ 4.82 two years ago and they were put initial calls For pricing probes, the flock was greater than 300 million.
“This has nothing to do with anything other than avian flu. And I think suggesting anything else is a bad reading of the facts and reality, ”said the president of the American egg board, Emily Metz.
“Our farmers are in the struggle of their lives, point, full stop. And they are doing everything possible to keep these safer birds, “Metz said.” This is a supply challenge. Due to avian flu. Nothing else.”
Agricultural action suspects that monopolistic behavior. The group that occurs in the name of farmers, consumers and smaller rural communities indicates that egg production has only dropped approximately 4% compared to last year and there were about 7.57 billion table eggs last month, however, some consumers still find empty egg wastes in their local edible stores.
“Dominant egg corporations blame avian flu for the price increases we are seeing. But while the supply of eggs has fallen slightly, these profits of the companies have shot them, ”said Angela Huffman, president of Farm Action. The Department of Justice acknowledged having received the letter from the group that requested an investigation, but refused to comment on it.
The fact that a The jury ruled in 2023 That the main egg producers used several means to limit the domestic supply of eggs to increase the price of the products during the 2000s only adds to the doubts about their motives now.
The prices of retail eggs had generally remained below $ 2 per dozen for years before this outbreak began. Prices have more than duplicated since then, increasing profits for egg producers, even when they deal with ups and downs.
Most dominant producers are private companies and do not publish their results. But the largest foods in Cal-Maine, which supplies about 20% of the eggs of the nation, is public and their profits increased dramatically. Cal-maine reported a $ 219 million gain in the most recent quarter when their eggs were sold for an average of $ 2.74 per dozen, compared to only $ 1.2 million in the quarter just before this sprout began at the beginning of 2022 when their eggs were sold for $ 1.37 per dozen.
Sherman Miller, president and CEO of Cal-Maine, said when he informed the numbers that the highest prices in the market “have continued to increase this fiscal year as the levels of shell egg supply have been restricted due to the recent highly pathogenic influenza outbreaks.”
But he said that Cal-maine also sold significantly more eggs, about 330 million dozen, compared to 288 million of the previous year, in the quarter because the demand is so strong and Cal-maine has made a series of acquisitions. Cal-maine also suffered few outbreaks on his farms, outside a couple of facilities in Kansas and Texas. The Mississippi -based company did not respond to the calls of Associated Press.
Economists and analysts say that the record prices of eggs are not a safe signal of something disastrous, and short -term gains could last until the farms are beaten. Once a flock is sacrificed, you can take a farm up to a year and raise new birds at the age of eggs. The USDA pays farmers for each murdered bird, but does not cover all costs for farmers, since they have no income.
“The consumer, I think, will probably feel that they are obtaining the difficult end of the stick. But I guarantee that farmers have to depopulate the barns, they are spending a more difficult time, “said Cobank Brian Earnest analyst.
Inflation in feeding, fuel and labor costs has contributed to the increase in egg prices, and farmers have been investing in biosafety measures to help keep the virus away. Therefore, production costs also seem to be at its highest point, according to the Price Index of the US Labor Statistics Office. UU.
“This is not a case in which they are taking the price to make the market. It is the price that is rising through wholesale. And they benefit from the highest prices because supplies are adjusted, ”said Jada Thompson, an agricultural economist at the University of Arkansas, Jada Thompson.
