Wyoming Egg-Eaters Say Investigation Into High Prices Can’t Come Soon Enough

As the nutritionist for Laramie County Senior Center, Carol Duran plays a little game of eggonomics every week. 

That game is a balancing act between the nutrition her senior citizens need, and the available budget for the breakfast and lunches served at the facility Monday through Friday.

“They really love the burritos,” Duran told Cowboy State Daily.

Because of high prices, Duran doesn’t put quite as many eggs in those burritos as she used to.

She has also started buying liquid eggs, premixed in a carton, because they are cheaper to get and more reliable than fresh eggs have been lately. 

“See, those don’t even have a price,” she said, pointing at an ordering screen for a tray of fresh eggs Tuesday morning. 

She’s also begun buying pre-boiled, peeled eggs for much the same reason. 

“They’re about half the cost of the fresh eggs,” she said. 

Despite these measures, however, Duran’s overall egg costs have lately doubled at the senior center over what they were before the avian bird flu epidemic. The center serves a variety of customers ages 60 and older. 

Those high prices have attracted a lot of questions from Americans and, more recently, a federal investigation from the Department of Justice, examining whether large producers are conspiring to raise prices or hold back supply.

Eggs Just The Latest Budget Buster

The investigation can’t come soon enough, seniors at Laramie County Senior Center told Cowboy State Daily.

Senior citizens are getting hammered by the high cost of everything right now, from rising rents to more expensive groceries. The cost of eggs is just the latest budget buster for them. 

“I’m only buying eggs once a month now,” Alex Kelly said.  “People just can’t afford anything anymore.”

Ditto for her friend Sandra Merrill, who said she sometimes skips breakfast altogether these days, given the high cost of basically everything.

“I was never one to eat breakfast much anyway,” she said. 

Like many Americans, both Kelly and Merrill have questions about current agricultural policies that require killing an entire flock if one chicken gets sick.

That’s led to the death of more than 160 million commercial poultry as a result. About 30 million egg-laying hens have been culled since January.

Those Prices

In the wake of that, egg prices nationwide have soared, hitting $4.95 a dozen on average in January. That was 2.5 times more than three years ago before the latest avian influenza epidemic began. Prices haven’t stopped rising since.

A dozen Great Value eggs from Walmart were going for $5.97 at Walmart in Cheyenne on Tuesday, or around 50 cents per egg.

At King Soopers in Cheyenne, A Kroger store, a dozen ranged from $6.39 to $11.49 a dozen, with the more expensive eggs labeled “organic.” That’s a range of about 53 cents to 96 cents an egg.

Eggs in some parts of the country, meanwhile, have reached more than $10 per dozen — when they are even available at all. Some stores have implemented sales limits on egg purchases, restricting customers to no more than two boxes.

It’s price-gouging, Alex’s husband Tom Kelly believes, something he said the Justice Department’s investigation should reveal, if regulators do their jobs.

“They’re collecting 50 times more than they need to,” he said of the large egg sellers. “These people all need to be put over everyone’s knee and then have us all taking a turn smacking that ass. I hope they get questioned and put in prison.”

Record Profits Despite Still High Production

Egg producers have blamed the bird flu outbreak for driving prices to record highs, but critics have questioned that narrative. 

Farm Action, for example, highlights egg production statistics, which are down just 4% year over year.

Production stats have not dipped below per capita consumption in any year since 2021, the group added. Production costs, meanwhile, haven’t risen nearly as much as retail costs, and are at 74 cents per dozen eggs.

“While avian flu has been cited as the primary driver of skyrocketing egg prices, its actual impact on production has been minimal,” the group said in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice. “Dominant egg producers have leveraged the crisis to raise prices, amass record profits and consolidate market power.

“The slow recovery in flock size, despite historically high prices, further suggests coordinated efforts to restrict supply and sustain inflated prices.”

The largest egg firms have been using windfall profits of up to 646% to then acquire their competition, the group said, further consolidating the market, rather than rebuilding flocks. 

The group has circulated an online petition that urges the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice to investigate the cost of eggs.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, meanwhile, has announced a billion-dollar strategy to curb bird flu, attacking the problem from a different direction. The recently announced funding is in addition to money USDA has already allocated to the problem.

About $500 million of the money will be used for additional biosecurity measures, $400 million for financial relief to affected farmers, and $100 million toward vaccine research. 

“The Biden administration did little to address the repeated outbreaks and high egg prices that followed,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said. “ By contrast, the Trump administration is taking the issue seriously.

“American farmers need relief, and American consumers need affordable food. To every family struggling to buy eggs: We hear you, we’re fighting for you, and help is on the way.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.