Colorado consumers are being hit with a double whammy when it comes to the price of eggs.
Avian influenza has reduced the number of egg-laying hens, and a new Colorado law has limited the number of suppliers able to provide eggs to grocery stores in the state. And prices are spiking.
Prices for a dozen eggs at a sampling of Fort Collins supermarkets Thursday ranged from a low of $4.99 for organic medium brown-shell eggs at the Safeway store at Drake and Taft Hill roads to as much as $7.69 for a dozen large or extra large white-shell eggs at King Soopers stores at 2325 S. College Ave., and at Elizabeth Street and Taft Hill Road.
That’s well above the national average of $4.85 a dozen for large, white-shell eggs as reported Jan. 3. by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in its weekly Egg Markets Overview.
Eggs sold in Colorado must be cage-free as of Jan. 1, a requirement that only about one-third of the egg producers in the U.S. met as of July 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
But Colorado’s commissioner of Agriculture, Kate Greenberg, blamed the latest spike in prices entirely on the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or bird flu, outbreak.
“Some of you may have seen egg shelves bare or purchase limits or prices very high right now with eggs,” Greenberg said Wednesday during a meeting of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission. “That is high path avian influenza having an impact on the marketplace; it’s not the cage-free law.”
More: Here are 5 new Colorado laws that could affect you starting Jan. 1
Chris Howes, president of the Colorado Retail Council, disagrees.
The current price increases and supply shortages, he said, are a result of both avian influenza and the new Colorado law. Producers have to provide a minimum of one square foot per egg-laying hen to comply with the Colorado law.
While acknowledging that “avian flu has definitely had a negative effect on the supply,” Howes went on to point out that his organization, which represents the state’s largest retailers, including King Soopers, Safeway and Walmart, warned legislators that the cage-free law “may lead to higher prices and a dwindling supply.”
“This is the point where we get to say we told you so,” Howes said.
The Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or bird flu, outbreak has reduced the number of egg-laying hens in the United States by 40 million in the past year, Emily Metz, President & CEO of the American Egg Board, told USA TODAY.
And prices have risen sharply with the reduced supply.
Marie Haskett, a Colorado Parks and Wildlife commissioner, told Greenberg and others attending Wednesday’s meeting that the average price of eggs in Meeker, the northwest Colorado community where she lives, was $13.49.
While that was the price the only supermarket in Meeker, Watt’s Ranch Market, was charging recently for an 18-pack of high-end organic eggs, that was an anomaly, store manager Summer Lomax told the Coloradoan on Thursday.
At the time, those were the only eggs her store could get, and those have since sold out, Lomax said. The egg shelves were empty Thursday, but she was expecting delivery soon on white-shell large eggs that would sell for about $8 a dozen.
Three of the four supermarkets visited by a Coloradoan reporter on Thursday in Fort Collins had a decent supply of eggs in cartons of 12 and 18, and the fourth, the King Soopers store at 2325 S. College Ave., was low on many other items, as well, as it tries to clear its shelves before moving to its new location two blocks away at the end of the month.
Colorado’s cage-free law has been phased in over the past four years prior to its full enactment Jan. 1, Greenberg said.
California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Michigan and Massachusetts have similar laws, USA TODAY reported.
While those laws and the competition among grocers in those states for eggs from suppliers who meet those requirements might lead to future price increases or supply shortages, Greenberg believes the current issue is strictly connected to avian influenza.
“Our producers have spent 4 years coming into compliance and we have 1,000 producers around the country who are compliant with Colorado law and ready to do business here if they’re not already. The challenge is many of them have been hit by high path, so they’re working to get back and fully operational.”
Coloradoan reporter Kelly Lyell can be reached at KellyLyell@coloradoan.com. Follow him on x.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Why are egg prices so high: bird flu, new Colorado law or both?