American egg prices have increased once again despite United States President Donald Trump’s predictions, a drop in wholesale prices and no egg farms having bird flu outbreaks, reaching an all-time record-high of US$6.23 per dozen.
At the 2 April Rose Garden tariff address Trump commented on one of his favourite campaign trail topics.
"The egg prices came down 50%," he said, praising Agriculture Secretary Brooke L. Rollins.
"You got them down 50% once we got involved, they were going through the sky, the egg prices, they were going through the sky, and you did a fantastic job. Now we have lots of eggs, and they're much cheaper, down about 59% now, and they're going down further."
That's due to wholesale prices of Large White eggs dropping from US$6.55 per dozen in Trump's first full day in office down to about US$3.26 a dozen at time of writing.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) latest data, the wholesale price on the New York market for formula trading of Large cartoned shell eggs delivered to retailers moved lower to finish the week down $0.09 to settle at $3.77 per dozen with a weak undertone.
However, consumers may have to wait for those price drops until after Easter to take effect at the supermarket.
The USDA says that's because “wholesale price changes can take up to three weeks to be reflected in the retail dairy case, consumers are only now starting to see shelf prices slowly decline”.
That means there’ll likely be no price relief on the shelves until after Easter - the so-called ‘Superbowl of eggs’ annual period for egg consumption.
