U.S. egg shoppers heading into Easter and Passover are finding prices lower than last year, after prices fell about 60% from record highs reached in 2025. The shift comes as the poultry industry rebuilds supplies that were disrupted when highly contagious bird flu led producers to cull egg-laying hens during earlier outbreaks, according to analysis of the market.
The bird-flu shock that pushed prices up earlier in the 2025 holiday season was followed by a less severe phase of the outbreak, which helped loosen supply constraints, said Mark Jordan, executive director of agricultural research firm LEAP Market Analytics. Jordan said the disease’s earlier spread forced farmers and commercial producers to slaughter entire broods of egg-laying hens, but that fewer cases later in 2025 allowed egg supplies to recover.
Even as supplies improved, Jordan said the stubborn outbreak had not disappeared. He said the number of infected commercial flocks rose in March, with farmers rapidly replenishing flocks that had died or been destroyed. Between July 2024 and July 2025, Jordan said the number of egg-type chicks hatched in the United States rose 8%, marking the first sustained and substantial increase in availability of specially bred layer chicks since bird flu began disrupting production in 2022.
Jordan also pointed to import and export changes that helped support U.S. supplies during the period of tighter pricing. He said the Trump administration’s decision to import nearly 1 billion eggs last year helped lower prices, although he said egg imports have since returned closer to normal levels. He also said the U.S. exported fewer eggs last year to help boost domestic supplies.
The price declines are easing costs for consumers, but industry leaders said the benefit does not necessarily flow to producers. Emily Metz, president and CEO of the America Egg Board, said farmers are no strangers to volatility and that it is part of the business, but she said that in recent months many have been selling eggs at or below the cost of production.
Metz’s comments underscore how bird-flu-driven swings in supply can translate into price pressure for producers, especially when costs also rise. The analysis cited that farmers may face higher feed costs, including corn and soybean meal, as the Iran war affects input prices, while egg prices drop.
The Associated Press reported additional numbers behind the shift in pricing and production. It said the average U.S. price for a dozen eggs was $2.50 in February and had been $6.23 per dozen in March 2025, when it was an all-time high. It also said the U.S. had about 315.8 million egg-laying hens as of March 1, about 8% higher than a year earlier, and that Iowa had about 45 million egg-laying hens.
For bird-flu losses, the report said the U.S. had about 205.7 million chickens and other birds that died or were culled due to bird flu since February 2022. It said the number of chickens and other birds culled in March 2026 was 5.22 million—more than double the number affected in March 2025. The report also cited a 657% increase in U.S. imports of shell eggs in 2025 compared with the year before, as well as a figure that it said reflected farmers’ production costs and wholesale pricing around late March.
The same analysis said that average cost for farmers to produce a dozen eggs was $1.05, not including labor and transportation, and that in late March the national average wholesale price of eggs was $1.17 per dozen. It also noted that about 40,000 real eggs would be used for this year’s White House Easter Egg Roll.