By Shimon Herman, Staff Writer
In a country where eggs are known as a basic staple of daily life, millions now find themselves scrambling to find what is now a rare commodity. Most of America has felt the economic repercussions of this nationwide crisis, as eggs have become increasingly more expensive by the day. As prices continue to surge and shelves remain empty, the hope of returning to affordable prices seems to be slipping further out of reach.
Farmers are facing unprecedented challenges, with poultry farms across the nation struggling to survive the deadliest avian flu outbreak in history. In Colorado alone, more than 90% of egg-laying hens have died. During the months of November and December of 2024, the U.S lost a whopping 17.2 million egg laying hens. In total, since 2022 there have been over 148 million poultry deaths in 47 states across America, decimating chicken farms.
The economic impact of this crisis has been just as devastating. Comparing current egg prices to what they were in January 2024, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index shows that egg prices have increased nationwide by 96.4%. The average cost for a dozen Grade A eggs in the U.S in January of this year. was $4.95 compared to $2.52 in January 2024. That is just the nationwide average; in places like New York or Los Angeles it is not uncommon to find eggs being sold at $8 a dozen.
If there were no more bird losses going forward, experts say it would take roughly nine months to fully restore the cost of eggs to what it was before. However, we don’t appear to be anywhere close to that stage. In the last few weeks alone there have been over 14 million bird deaths, making the journey towards recovery longer than anticipated.
As consumers watch this massive economic catastrophe unfold, many wonder what is happening on the production side and how businesses are responding to this crisis. How has this shortage affected distribution and sourcing tactics? What are companies doing now to ensure that this doesn’t happen again?
Will we ever recover?
The YU Observer asked some of these nagging questions to Mr. Daniel Gibber, the Vice President of Sales for Deb-El Food products. Deb-El Food Products is one of the leading manufacturers and marketers of further processed egg products such as pasteurized, liquid, frozen, dried, hard, cooked and pre-cooked egg products.
“The significant reduction of egg availability has generated the need for companies to adapt various strategies based on their circumstances. Some companies have placed their customers on “allocation,” limiting the amount of product that can be purchased,” Gibber told the YU Observer when asked how Deb-El has adjusted to the current egg shortage. “We at Deb-El have taken an alternate approach by proactively procuring additional supply for our valued customer base, including importing from overseas markets to continue meeting our customer’s needs as best as possible.”
While other companies have put limits on their customers, Deb-El has managed to avoid such measures by sourcing from international markets and strengthening its supply chain. “We work diligently to secure as much additional supply as possible, both domestically and abroad, to increase supply and best mitigate rising costs,” Gibber said.
Ultimately, the biggest question is: How can we stop this rapidly deteriorating situation from getting even worse? During disease outbreaks like this, the typical approach to prevent mass infections in poultry is depopulating or culling the flock (killing the entire chicken farm). Many have wondered if there is an alternative to this that may be more effective, such as vaccinating the chickens.
“While there has been conversation around the possibility of vaccinating birds and laying hens in the future, it is not yet clear on how impactful it would be. Even if vaccinating the birds would have a significantly positive impact on controlling the spread of ‘bird-flu’ (which is far from a certainty), vaccination would have significant economic implications in its own right, both domestically as well as for the industry’s export markets,” Gibber said. “While the possibility of vaccinating birds will continue to be studied, the reality is that it would have a better chance to potentially impact future outbreaks in the long term than in the short term.”
Gibber said that the industry has taken many significant steps over the years to prevent future outbreaks and has continuously worked to devise and implement biosecurity measures in order to best limit Avian-Influenza outbreaks. “ There are numerous ways for ‘bird-flu’ to spread, with the migration of wild birds being a chief culprit,” he added. “While the industry continuously works to find potential solutions (biosecurity measures, potential vaccinations, etc.), unfortunately, for now, Avian-Influenza remains a threat to supply for the immediate future.”
It seems that this issue is far from over. As the avian flu continues to impact more farms, companies must remain flexible in adapting to new ways to maintain supply. With the situation constantly evolving, it is clear that the road ahead will require lots of serious effort and innovation to ensure demand is met without sacrificing quality or service.