Portrait of young woman farmer holding fresh eggs in hands
Viktorcvetkovic/Getty ImagesIf you're associating higher egg prices with the Easter holiday approaching, guess again.
It actually has to do with the bird flu and it's affecting poultry farms across the country that have fewer hens contributing to production. The information comes in a report from the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. In return, egg prices at the grocery store have been going up.
Large eggs came in at a price range of $2.80 to $2.89 just last week in the Midwest, that's up from this time last year in 2021 when large eggs were going for between $1.40 and $1.60, according to a USDA Egg Market News Report.
The overall effect of the bird flu and egg prices may continue into the summer as the USDA has ordered that all infected birds on farms be killed. Iowa is one of the largest producers of dairy eggs, and according to the Des Moines Register, 1.53 million birds have been destroyed in the state —that includes 1.5 million egg-laying hens and $28,000 turkeys.
