Egg prices have tumbled since Trump returned to office. Here's why — SkimNews
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- Egg prices fell from $4.95 per dozen in January 2025 to $2.27 in August 2025, a drop of more than half, though Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for the decline.
- Avian flu wiped out nearly 51 million egg-laying hens between October 2024 and March 2025, pushing prices to a record $6.23 per dozen in March 2025, before a milder winter flu season and improved biosecurity enabled flock recovery.
- Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced up to $1 billion in February to fight the disease, including up to $500 million for biosecurity and up to $400 million to compensate farmers who culled flocks.
- LEAP Market Analytics' Mark Jordan attributed 90-95% of the price decline to "biosecurity success and luck"; egg imports spiked to 121 million dozen-equivalent in 2025 from 29.8 million the prior year, though that was a small share of the 90 billion eggs U.S. producers churn out annually.
- Trump's tariffs and the Iran war raised farmers' operating costs through higher diesel, fertilizer, corn, soybean meal, and packaging prices, with cardboard specifically hit by trade negotiations with Canada.
- The Justice Department and 17 states settled a price-fixing case against Cal-Maine Foods, Hickman's Egg Ranch, and Versova, which prosecutors said had pushed egg prices higher in recent years.
- Overall grocery prices were still up 2.2% year-over-year in August, even as egg prices dropped 23% in the same period.
Why it matters: Heading into the midterms, Trump's affordability pitch leans heavily on egg prices falling from $4.95 to $2.27 a dozen, but experts attribute roughly 90-95% of that drop to biosecurity gains and a milder avian flu season, not policy, while his own tariffs and the Iran war have raised farmers' costs and overall grocery prices remain up 2.2% year-over-year.
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