There have been over 20 million commercial table/shell egg laying hens lost already in 2025 alone due to High Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI). Losses have impacted egg supply and prices have spiked. At the time of this writing, nationally, large white shell eggs are over $8.00 per dozen. Discussions over HPAI vaccination have been going on at some level from the beginning of this outbreak in 2022, but just recently a conditional approval has been given for a vaccine to be used here in the U.S. While vaccination holds some promise, it has its own set of problems and costs that must be balanced with the potential gains from controlling the virus.
As a stopgap measure to boost egg supplies, it has been suggested that surplus eggs from broiler hatcheries could be transferred into the egg products market, replacing shell eggs that could then be sold as fresh, helping lower prices. Eggs that go into egg products are used for things like dressings, sauces, etc. or for powered egg products like cake mixes. These products are pasteurized and considered some of the safest egg products available for human consumption. The surplus broiler eggs come from the occasional over-supply of hatching eggs not being able to be set to hatch. They are currently used for animal feed products or often simply disposed of. At one time, they were allowed to enter the edible egg products market. Using surplus broiler eggs stopped in 2009 when a law specifically targeting normal table egg handling and storage was passed requiring ALL eggs, whether sold fresh or used for egg products, be handled in such a way that precludes the surplus broiler eggs from the process. Now, some are asking the law be rescinded or modified to allow broiler eggs to again be used to help relieve the current egg shortage.
To analyze this question, we must look at a few big numbers. First, it is estimated by the National Chicken Council that there would be an annual surplus of “…almost 400 million broiler eggs (going) into the egg breaking supply each year…” That is a lot of eggs, but would it affect the price of table eggs? According to the USDA-Economic Research Service, total table egg production for 2024 was 7,751 million dozen, or over 93 billion eggs. If we assume an even distribution, that’s 7.75 billion eggs being produced per month! If we evenly distribute the surplus broiler egg supply, it could provide an additional 33.6 million eggs per month, or about 0.4% of the monthly total – an amount not likely to make any appreciable difference in the current prices. Still, there is no reason not to add these eggs into the market, but there should be no expectation of any significant price impact for doing so. It would however benefit the broiler companies as a market outlet for eggs that are often a loss. And if a few more eggs hit the store shelves, that’s not a bad thing.
Fig. 1 – Egg prices declined and stayed close to the recent annual average of around $2.00/dz for a couple of months after the most recent spike in January 2023. The current spike far outweighed that spike and will likely not abate for some time.
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