United States

The egg supply shock in the United States arrived a year earlier than is widely remembered. In January 2025 alone, highly pathogenic avian influenza wiped out roughly nineteen million laying hens — about eight percent of the national flock in a single month — and retail prices reached all-time records. The shortage was severe enough that the United States, normally an exporter, turned to imports from Brazil, Honduras, Mexico, Türkiye and South Korea to keep supermarket shelves stocked.

Conditions in 2026 have reversed. Flocks have been rebuilt, prices are down more than forty percent from a year earlier, and the USDA expects the 2026 average to come in far below that of 2025. Producers now express concern about oversupply. The swing from record scarcity to surplus within eighteen months illustrates how quickly the egg cycle turns once replacement pullets mature.

The risk has not disappeared: the H5N1 virus continues to circulate among wild birds, and each migration season brings renewed uncertainty for the industry. The U.S. figure on this page reflects prices observed daily at Kroger, one of the country's largest grocers, converted from a conventional dozen to a 10-egg basis. The federal minimum wage used in the purchasing-power widget ($7.25) is a statutory floor; most states set theirs higher.