Egg prices are falling back to their normal levels

Egg prices are tumbling after 5 months of worth hikes that drove some customers to smuggle inexpensive eggs from Mexico.

Prices fell 6.7% in February, in accordance to Consumer Price Index data launched Tuesday. That comes after egg prices jumped each and every month beginning in October, pushing the common worth of a dozen Grade A eggs from $2.90 in September to $4.82 in January, in accordance to figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. 

With February’s worth drop, the price of a dozen eggs declined to $4.21.

Even regardless that prices are easing, customers are nonetheless paying 55% extra for a dozen eggs than they did a 12 months previous, partially due to an avian flu epidemic. Tens of tens of millions of egg-laying hens were slaughtered in what has grow to be the deadliest fowl flu outbreak in U.S. historical past, which has restricted egg provides and driven prices upper.

With eggs nonetheless slightly pricey, Dollar Tree has halted egg gross sales in its Dollar Tree retail outlets, with the chain now not anticipating to carry back the meals merchandise till this autumn, according to Reuters. 

That choice comes forward of the spring vacations of Easter and Passover, when customers generally tend to purchase extra eggs. But grocers are wary about Easter call for this 12 months as a result of issues that still-high prices may just hose down call for, in accordance to a U.S. Department of Agriculture analysis of egg prices. 

Meanwhile, grocery retail outlets are not discounting eggs as a result of they “are content to keep eggs on the shelf moving through normal attrition,” the USDA research discovered.

The avian flu outbreak has inflamed greater than 58.5 million birds throughout 791 flocks in 14 states as of Tuesday, in accordance to USDA data. Because inflamed birds will have to be slaughtered, the outbreak has been a significant component in upper egg prices.

It’s now not handiest egg prices that are hitting pocketbooks. Rising meals prices have endured to crimp family budgets in fresh months. Grocery prices jumped by way of an annual price of 10.2% in February, with prices for pieces starting from frozen fruit and veggies to ham mountain climbing closing month, the CPI records displays.