Grocery shoppers may be in for a surprise when buying fresh eggs this holiday season.
Jaw-dropping egg prices are back to pandemic-era levels.
The price of eggs jumped 55% in November according to government statistics released on Thursday.
The data showed that a dozen Grade A eggs cost $3.65 in November, according to the Federal Reserve.
United States egg production for October 2024 fell 4% from last year to 9.19 billion. Production
included 7.89 billion table eggs, and 1.30 billion hatching eggs, of which 1.21 billion were broiler-type and 92.4 million were egg-type, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Bird flu was a big culprit in increased egg prices and shortages in 2022 and 2023 and it is a big issue again.
This year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stated that approximately 33 million commercial egg-laying chickens were killed because of the disease.
There are outbreaks in 49 states.
CDC data revealed that the deaths of about 15 million birds occurred since Oct. 15. Since then, wholesale prices of eggs have increased by 97%.
It says that more than 122 million birds have been affected by the highly pathogenic avian influenza since January 2022.
