The egg price surge has largely spared pasture-raised eggs
Pasture-raised hens aren’t any more immune to bird flu, and their premium eggs aren’t getting cheaper. But prices have held steady while conventional egg costs explode.
Shoppers used to picking up the cheapest eggs at the grocery store may now be reaching for higher-end cartons.
That’s because bird flu is turbocharging prices of commercially produced eggs, while farmers of pasture-raised hens — who say their practices make for more humane, sustainable and tasty eggs — have largely held their premium prices steady. Grocery shoppers may be noticing the price gap narrow or even invert, in some cases making specialty eggs cheaper than conventional ones.
Nationwide, a dozen eggs sold for $4.95 on average in January, up from $2.52 a year earlier, as avian influenza has wiped out poultry flocks and slammed into domestic egg supplies. Through it all, specialty egg distributor Pete & Gerry’s says its dozen-egg cartons have been retailing for about $6.99 over the past 18 to 24 months.
“Our prices are extremely stable, which means our retail partners are offering a really, really stable price to consumers,” said Cameron Whitehead, chief operating officer at the New Hampshire-based company that sells eggs from nearly 300 family farms across New England, the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic.
Egg cartons come with lots of labels. The U.S. Department of Agriculture designates “cage-free” and “free-range” practices as those allowing hens to roam around to some extent indoors, and gain at least limited access to an outdoor enclosure, respectively. “Pasture-raised” eggs, which aren’t federally regulated, generally means the chickens can leave the barn and venture out to graze and scratch. The “organic” label can apply to any of these and also refers to what the chickens were fed.
Rating: 5