Egg prices skyrocket 60% as Colorado grocers struggle to keep shelves stocked
Egg prices rose nearly 60% last month compared to the year before, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Egg shelves in many groceries are empty as Colorado grocers scramble to stock eggs.
Denver specialty grocer Marczyk's Fine Foods says despite turning to out-of-state producers, their supply has been cut by half.
"We're trying to get eggs from wherever we can basically," said Operations Director Mark Johnson.
The shortage comes from a recent avian flu outbreak leading to an 85% loss of egg-laying hens statewide.
"It takes time for each barn in the farm to go through the process of cleaning disinfecting and repopulating," said Bill Scebbi with Colorado Egg Producers.
As those farms repopulate, egg prices across the country are soaring.
"It's supply and demand," Scebbi said. "We don't have the supply that we once had so getting the eggs to market and getting them on the shelf is going to cost more."
"We are a little bit less sensitive to price increase because we do carry such a specialty product," said Johnson, "but we have seen anywhere from 5-10% increase over the last 30 days."
But it's not just avian flu jacking those prices up; inflation and a new state law requiring cage-free egg production are compounding the problem.
"Colorado egg producers have been hit by the perfect storm," Scebbi said. "We did predict that the cost of eggs would go up $1.50 to $1.75 based on that legislation we're following."
Colorado's egg producers, sellers and buyers are now hoping for an end to the "egg-demic."
"It reminds me back when Covid started and you couldn't find toilet paper anywhere," Johnson said.
"It is quite a pandemic that we hope we don't have to live through much more," Scebbi said.
Scebbi estimates Colorado flocks will be repopulated around May, and that's when we can expect to see egg prices go down and stabilize. But inflation and that new cage-free law will still likely keep the prices a little higher than we're used to.