The price of eggs is down from their peak of more than $12 a dozen last month and grocery managers say their supplies have stabilized somewhat this week.
A dozen Wild Harvest eggs at IGA still costs more than $9 per dozen, but manager Kevin Shove said the prices should decrease in the coming weeks and their orders will be more fully stocked.
“Next week we’re getting in almost all our order. They were allotting each store so many cases. The price was over $12 when it was the highest, a buck an egg,” Shove said. “I think next week the case price goes down so it should drop that price and hopefully get down to normal.”
Olerud’s Market Center manager Sara Swinton said they received a full order of eggs this week. She’s ordering only brown eggs, which are currently cheaper than white eggs. The cheapest dozen at Olerud’s is $4.35.
“I’m sticking with basic browns in the organics,” Swinton said. “(Our suppliers) did say the white egg prices are coming down, but not enough yet for me to buy into that.”
Mountain Market owner Mary Jean Sebens is limiting customers to one package of eggs per visit. She said her store is still being shorted on their egg orders, including the liquid eggs they use for their breakfast wraps.
“We didn’t get any this week and we won’t get any next week,” she said of their liquid egg orders.
They’ve also received egg shipments in large flats that they’ve been selling in recycled containers. “Prices are fluctuating a lot,” Sebens said. “It’s a week-to-week situation.”
The egg shortage has been caused, in part, by an outbreak of Avian flu.The Avian flu, which is lethal to chickens, caused the culling of more than 44 million laying hens across the country. Emily Metz, president of the American Egg Board, told the New York Times last week that while the bird flu is a factor, other issues have played a larger role.
“Is avian flu a factor? Yes,” Ms. Metz told the Times. “Is it the only factor? No, and I would argue it’s not even the biggest factor in where these prices are right now,” citing increased costs of feed, fuel and packaging.