There are lines of people waiting to get into Trader Joe’s, Costco and other grocery stores around Long Beach early in the morning, with many shoppers hoping to score a carton of eggs — and finding sticker shock at the price increases.
The cost of a dozen eggs in California shot up to nearly $9 per dozen in January, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, resulting in higher prices in restaurants and other food products. Nationwide, egg prices rose by 38% in 2024, bringing the national average cost of a dozen eggs to $3.65.
The reason is the loss of about 3 million egg-laying chickens in California alone due to a severe outbreak of bird flu. The United States lost upward of 20 million birds in the last quarter of 2024.
The Central Valley has been hit especially hard, losing about 1.5 million birds, including a large number of ducks, in the span of only six weeks at the end of 2024, according to the California Poultry Association.
The H5N1 bird flu has spread across the world over the past four years. The outbreak intensified in the United States in March 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
The virus has since spread to cows and other farm animals, domesticated animals and even humans, though the risk for human exposure remains low, according to the CDC.
The USDA predicts that egg supplies will increase by April 2025, decreasing the cost of a dozen eggs to roughly $2.50 across the United States.
The prices in California will remain above that average, however, in part due to the high cost of gasoline for transportation and stricter laws that require larger cages for chickens.