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Egg prices make major moves ahead of Easter

National retail prices for shell eggs hit their peak the third week of March after what had been a steady decline since the beginning of this year.

The USDA says Easter demand drove prices higher and they are now starting to moderate.

Dr. Nancy Barr with the Michigan Allied Poultry Industry tells Brownfield producers have been restocking their flocks since highly pathogenic avian influenza last year caused catastrophic losses.

“It does take a very long time for farms that have been impacted to come back into production so there’s leg time there,” she explains.  “The industry has been growing even before HPAI so the emphasis is on making sure the production has been high.”

While prices have come down somewhat, Barr says new cage-free laws coming into effect in several states will keep them elevated longer term.

“The cost of eggs will probably not go down to the price that we were used to five or ten years ago, it should be higher but hopefully will moderate from the highs we’ve seen recently,” she says.

Michigan law will require cage-free egg production by 2025, one of seven states with the regulations taking effect in the next few years.

Michigan is the eighth-largest egg-producing state.