What’s in Trump’s $1bn plan to bring egg prices down?

A new strategy to combat bird flu, which has led to a severe egg shortage and increased egg prices in the US, has been unveiled by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The $1 billion plan includes funding for new vaccine and treatment research for poultry farmers. The organization wants to increase egg imports in order to meet demand in the near future.

“American farmers need relief, and American consumers need affordable food”, wrote Trump’s Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in a Wall Street Journal editorial. We understand that every family trying to purchase eggs is fighting for you, and assistance is on the way.

But when will consumers experience relief from the egg crisis, how severe is it, and what are Trump’s specifics regarding the price cuts?

What is the US egg price?

On average, about $4.95 for a dozen.

That’s an all-time high – nearly double the price just one year ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In some big cities, prices are even higher, hitting $8 to $10 per dozen in Chicago, New York and San Francisco.

Many consumers now enjoy the price increase, making breakfast a staple of the day. Some popular breakfast chains, such as Denny’s and Waffle House, have taken to adding surcharges for egg dishes. “A simple egg sandwich is like a luxury”, one grocery shopper in Chicago, Jon Harris, told the Reuters news agency.

Why are prices so high?

The rise in H5N1 avian flu cases in US poultry farms is largely responsible for the increase. Since February 2022, the virus has swept through all 50 states and Puerto Rico, hitting more than 1, 600 flocks, according to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

To prevent further spread, entire flocks are culled wherever viruses are detected. Over 160 million birds have been killed as a result of the crisis, with 30 million of those killed this year. This has severely harmed commercial farms and led to severe egg shortages.

“If there are no birds to lay eggs… then we have a supply shortage, and that leads to higher prices because of supply and demand dynamics”, explained Jada Thompson, a poultry specialist at the University of Arkansas.

At the start of this year, the number of egg-laying hens in the US stood at 304 million, an 11 percent decline from five years ago, according to the USDA.

What steps did Joe Biden, a former president, take?

Biden’s administration spent about $1.5bn combatting the spread of H5N1 after it resurged in 2022. It did so in accordance with US government policy, which has been in place for a while.

Egg prices steadily increased during Biden’s tenure, rising from $ 1.60 per dozen in February 2021 to $ 4.10 in December 2024 as a result of the reduction in chicken prices. The price has continued to rise since then, hitting $4.95 this week.

In addition, Biden allocated more than $600m to stop the virus from spreading to humans, including through disease monitoring, treatment preparations and research on therapies, diagnostics and vaccine innovation.

What is different about Trump’s plan?

The USDA has stated it will follow the same strategy despite Trump administration officials’ claims that Biden is to blame for the egg price increase as a result of culling policies.

“No anticipated changes to our current stamping-out policy at this time”, said Rosemary Sifford, chief veterinary officer for the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, on Wednesday.

However, the organization has released a $1 billion plan set to address the egg shortage from a variety of angles.

The USDA announced in a press release on Wednesday that it would spend $500 million to improve farm biosecurity measures to prevent wild bird influenza from catching H5N1 and $400 million to reimburse farmers whose flocks have been culled. Additionally, it added that it would invest $100 million to develop novel vaccines, treatments, and solutions to combat chicken flu, as well as improve surveillance when there are outbreaks.

Additionally, the USDA says it will investigate ways to end expensive industry regulations, including those that affect backyard poultry growers, and temporarily increase the importation of more eggs.

Where could the US obtain more eggs?

The majority of the eggs consumed in the US are produced. However, it is now looking to import more with domestic prices at an all-time high.

According to the Turkish Egg Producers Central Union, Turkiye is one of the nations it is expanding its operations to. The company anticipates shipping 420 million eggs to the US this year, six times as many as it did last year.

Despite USDA estimates, this represents only a small portion of the country’s total demand, or less than a zipped portion of the 109 billion eggs it produced in the year leading up to November 2024.

The US government has historically received some imports from Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and China, but it has not specified which other nations it wants to see more eggs from.

As of 2023, the Netherlands was the world’s biggest egg exporter, selling more than $1bn of eggs abroad, mainly to Germany, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity. Turkiye, with $441m in exports, ranked fifth. It exported most of its eggs to the Gulf, according to the report.

What are the opinions of industry experts?

Trade groups in the sector have been pleased with Trump’s multifaceted plan to address the egg crisis.

United Egg Producers, which represents companies producing more than 90 percent of US eggs, thanked Trump for “stepping up to take action”.

In a statement released on X, President Trump and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins stated their commitment to working with American egg farmers to stop the HPAI [avian influenza] on the US egg industry by directing resources and expertise where they are most needed.

With this historic $1 billion investment, UEP thanks President Trump and Secretary Rollins for their commitment to halting the devastating effects of highly pathogenic avian influenza #HPAI on Americans #EggFarmers.

Read our statement on this important initiative. @USDA @SecRollins pic. twitter.com/HgB4TVSOLE

However, some experts are pushing for a quicker release of chicken vaccines because they currently take a long time to administer and could unintentionally harm the entire poultry market. Because some foreigners do not purchase poultry from nations that have H5N1 vaccinations because they fear the virus’ spread might be concealed by the vaccine.

Gregory Gray, a professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch, said, “It seems to me that we’re going to have to start using vaccines.”

Egg prices will they increase or decrease?

Egg prices are expected to rise by another 41% this year, according to the USDA.

However, Rollins believes that within a year or two, prices will return to the $1.30 to $2 per dozen range observed during Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021.

She stated at a press conference on February 24 that “we will fix it.”

Source: Aljazeera