Your Easter Eggs Haven’t Been This Cheap in 10 Years

One dozen large grade A eggs costs about $1.40 as of March, according to new data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s down 68 cents, or 32% from last year, and egg prices haven’t been this cheap since 2007.

The reason? Egg prices spiked in 2015 amid an avian flu outbreak. As Modern Farmer has noted, the outbreak disproportionately affected egg-laying hens, as opposed to broiler chickens. As a result, egg prices temporarily neared $3.00 a dozen.

Now the supply of eggs is back to normal, but exports of American eggs to other countries still haven’t returned to their pre-bird flu levels. That’s why prices have come down so much, Sean Ramos, an economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told Coins2Day in an email. The USDA expects egg prices to fall another 5% to 6% this year, he said.

That’s good news for American consumers, who eat about 276 eggs a year, according to the American Egg Board.

“Without question, Easter is the egg holiday,” the marketing group matter-of-factly claims.

Eggs are not the only groceries with cheaper sticker prices these days. Food prices declined through most of 2016 driven by lower fuel costs. Prices on white bread are down 6%, red delicious apples are down 15% and ground beef prices are down 9% from a year ago.

A broader measure of consumer prices, which includes clothing, housing and other categories, shows consumer prices fell in March by the largest amount in more than two years. The broad basket of goods measured by the Consumer Price Index fell 0.3% last month, the BLS reported Friday.

Overall, consumer prices are up 2.4% when compared to a year ago. Excluding food and energy, which are volatile categories, so-called “core” prices were up 2%.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to the American Egg Board as a lobbying group. It is a marketing group.