The Blubber

According to the Department of Agriculture's price outlook, egg prices are expected to rise by about 20% in 2025, far outpacing the projected 2.2% increase in overall food prices. The USDA attributed the surge in egg costs to a widespread outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, which has put significant strain on supply.

This increase continues a longer trend—egg prices in December 2024 were 36.8% higher than they were in December 2023, though they remained below their peak in January 2023. The USDA report noted that retail egg prices jumped 8.4% in December 2024, with ongoing volatility in month-to-month pricing.

Other staples like beef, coffee, and orange juice are also expected to see price hikes in 2025, but none at the scale of eggs, according to the USDA. Speaking on CBS News’ Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, Vice President JD Vance said that while gas and grocery prices will eventually drop, the process will take time.

“Prices are going to come down, but it’s going to take a little bit of time,” Vance told Brennan in the interview, which aired Sunday. “The president has been in office for all of five days. I think that in those five days, he’s accomplished more than Joe Biden did in four years.”

How severe is the bird flu outbreak?

The strain of bird flu behind the current crisis, H5N1, first emerged in European poultry flocks in the fall of 2020 before spreading to the U.S., Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The outbreak has since become the largest ever recorded in the U.S.

On January 3, the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service reported that retail egg prices had hit record highs nationwide due to the "significant outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in commercial table egg layer flocks through December."

By January 17, more than 136 million poultry across all 50 U.S. states had been infected since the virus first arrived in the country in January 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To contain the spread, infected birds have been culled across the U.S., with some farms forced to slaughter millions of birds in a single location.

While some states avoided major outbreaks last year, many have reported a resurgence of the virus. According to USDA data, about 17.2 million egg-laying hens were lost to the virus in November and December alone—nearly half of all birds culled due to the disease in 2024.