Eggflation Returns As Top Producer Hit With Bird Flu In Kansas

America's top egg producer and distributor revealed on Tuesday that its egg-laying hens at a mega-industrial farm in Kansas had been infected with the highly pathogenic avian influenza. This is bad news as egg prices will likely rebound after crashing from record highs earlier this year. 

On Tuesday, Cal-Maine Foods wrote in a press release that 684,000 laying hens, or approximately 1.6% of its total flock, have been affected by bird flu. The production facility is located in Kansas and has temporarily ceased operations to follow safety protocols instructed by the United States Department of Agriculture. 

Bloomberg noted Cal-Maine escaped bird flu cases after the virus decimated 72 million birds last year. 

However, the re-emergence of bird flu should have consumers worried that 'eggflation' has returned. 

Now, new data from Urner Barry, a market research firm that tracks wholesale food prices, shows its Urner Barry Egg Index has jumped from a low of 48 cents a dozen in May to as high as $1.75 in November. Prices were $4.65 in December 2022.

Urner Barry's wholesale prices tend to lead as the USDA's Grade A Egg Retail Per Dozen index appears to have bottomed around $2. 

Is inflation transitory? 

PPI: prices for chicken eggs jumped 58.8 percent

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) December 13, 2023

We first identified the reversal in egg prices in a Feb. 8 note titled "We've Got Great News: Wholesale Egg Prices "Collapse"". This was followed by "Egg Prices Finally Fall After Months Of Non-Stop Price Spikes" in March and "Eggflation Ends With Cal-Maine Shares Down The Most Since 2008" in April. 

Has eggflation returned? If so, maybe now is the right time to think about raising egg-laying hens. Become your own farmer and break away from the mega-corporations controlling the food supply chain.