$5 a dozen: major egg companies may be using avian flu to hike US prices, new report finds
$5 a dozen: major egg companies may be using avian flu to hike US prices, new report finds
The highly concentrated egg market may be contributing to soaring consumer prices – and the spread of the virus, data shared exclusively with the Guardian shows
Summary
Major egg corporations may be using avian flu as a ruse to hike up prices, generating record profits while hurting American consumers, new research suggests.
-
Egg prices soared to nearly $5 a dozen, rising 157% since before the avian flu outbreak, despite only a 9% drop in laying hens.
-
Cal-Maine, controlling 20% of the US market, saw a sevenfold profit increase in 2023 compared to 2021.
-
Over 166 million poultry have been culled, but critics say consolidation and slow flock replacement may inflate prices beyond the virus’s 12-24% direct cost.
Lawmakers urge investigations, while the Trump administration plans vaccines, reduced culling, and a $1bn avian flu fund to help stabilize costs.
-
What, price gouging, on eggs? What will they think of next, toilet paper? No wait, I bet they haven't thought of making the package look the same, but put less product in it and charging the same? No wait, what if they changed the package and put less in it and charged more?
Nah .. that will never work.
-
No wait, what if they changed the package and put less in it and charged more?
I was shopping a few weeks ago and noticed that every single package said something like '5 times as much as a standard roll' or 10 times or 20 times. Nothing said it was a standard roll. Some quick math told me that they all have their own definition of what a standard roll is too.
-
Toilet paper math is the worst math.
-
I've noticed that 2x rolls of toilet paper usually have the most sheets per roll. 3x rolls tend to lean in to the fact that they are 3 play and use a standard 1 ply roll as their base point so they have the same sheet count. 2x rolls seem to use a standard 2 ply roll as their base so the standard roll is the same sheet count as a 1 ply roll but actually has close to double the sheet count of the 3x rolls. It's weird.
-
-
-
Capitalism functioning as expected. Shocking.
-
Don't worry everyone, the Consumer Protection Agency will take care of...
Oh, nvmd.
-
They were caught doing it the last time bird flu was a thing. Trump then fired the people who caught them, so, good luck
-
They can hike prices as much as they want, there is nothing illegal or even wrong (arguably) about that. As long as people buy enough for it to increase profits, it's obvious they will do that. That's the reason free competition is important. Free as in preventing monopolies and cartels.
But Americans have lost interest in free competition, and prefer models that maximize profits now.-
They may actually be hurting themselves in the long run. The amount of people I know that have decided to get chickens since the pandemic has increased far more than I ever expected it would. And if you've ever had your own chickens before, you know that there's plenty to go around and you share with friends and neighbors. So not only are they permanently losing more customers to people getting chickens, they're also losing customers to friends of people that have chickens. Plus all these people are getting much higher quality eggs from happy chickens, so why would they ever go back? I know not everyone can, but, the more people that start raising chickens the better!
-
I've looked into raising chickens. There is so much that goes into it. Between their coop and bedding, cleaning and feed, the upfront cost alone is cost prohibitive. On top of that, everything wants to eat chickens. So if you have any predators (foxes, wolves, even dogs), they'll go after your chickens.
The egg prices have me seriously reconsidering it though
-
It's amazing in hindsight just how much of our capitalist free market was just a show to compete with the Soviet Union. Now our biggest rivals are both just corrupt oligarchies too.
Something big is due for a change.
-
They can hike prices as much as they want, there is nothing illegal or even wrong (arguably) about that.
In the US there are exceptions to the charge anything standard, such as limitations on gouging on gas pricing during emergencies and laws against companies colliding on price hikes. The protections kick in when customers don't have a choice, and it is possible that all egg companies raising prices to seek profits while blaming something that has far less of an effect than the prices indicate could potentially fall into one of those two categories.
Not that it matters as the penalties are always far less than the abuse, but pricing in the US isn't a complete wild west.
-
What do you think these companies were freely competing for? It's profits. It has always been profits.
Cartels and monopolies are what happens when you have "free competition" for a bit, and then someone "wins" the competition.
-
-
The industry has already been found liable for such behavior: https://apnews.com/article/egg-producers-price-gouging-lawsuit-conspiracy-be6919b3fb42bf2d9d3884d5e133e91d
People cannot keep up with the costs. The government isn't doing anything. They let corporations get away with everything
sighs This is so very frustrating. 😖
-
What a hurtful thing to say about a "person".
/s
-
-
Wow, this is truly unprecedented. We haven't ever seen anything like this before!
-
Shocking I tell you. Shocking. 😮
-
-
Too bad price gouging isn't prosecuted anymore.
-
Shocked Pikachu face.
-
$5/dozen is pretty good compared to most prices I've seen.
-
This is why I refuse to buy eggs until prices go down to normal. I'm not going to reward them for taking advantage.
-
$5?! Where?! They're $9.99 here in Los Angeles. :(
-
$16.49 in Brooklyn yesterday
-
6.79 out here in rural nebraska, they were 3.50 a month ago
-
Same in solidly red Bible belt area I live in. $21 for 30.
-
For real, Seattle is like this too. We're going to be paying $1/egg soon!
-
Kirkland Costco, admittedly 2-3 weeks ago. Something like $9.59 for two dozen.
Something between $9 and $10 on the price tag is what I remember.
No idea what it is now.
-
-
-
They're $11 in southern California.
-
I saw $10 at my regular store in Ohio last week. The same was $2 three years ago. That wasn't even good "free range" eggs although I don't believe that marketing. Backyard chickens are where it is at.
-
$11 in Western WA state too.
-
-
-
Lol I just don't buy eggs now. I could buy any other protein for the price of eggs now
-
“No shit.”
-
Torches & pitchforks.
-
It's a free market!!!!
-
Claiming that a 157% price hike cannot be explained by a 9% drop in supply is just bad economics. If everybody just buys the eggs anyway the price can rise arbitrarily high.
Profits increasing on the short term is very plausible as costs don't rise from having some hens die, but supply drops. This is over compensated with price increases.
-
Shocked Pikachu face.
-
Somewhere out there must still be super cheap to be pushing the average down to five
-
You can probably get the cheapest, 5 birds per cage, hormone fed eggs somewhere for around that price. A lot of states have standards that don't allow those eggs to be sold, though. Here in WA, for example, there are regulations around the treatment of chickens that raise the average price. I can't find eggs for less than about $7 per dozen right now.
-
-
How can a country be in such a hysteria over egg prices? Don't they have anything to eat but eggs?
-
Don’t be dense.
It’s a symptom of an overall problem.
-
The only time i hear about egg prices is on the internet and now it’s a rebuttal of all the trump propaganda that was used against Biden
-
-
Supply is dropping and they are raising prices to what people will pay. This is how its always worked, you just had more supply prior to the bird flu, and now production will increase to capture the rising prices.
Its like these articles just found out about supply and demand.