The bird flu outbreak in the U.S. has made it increasingly difficult to cross eggs off the grocery list — for home consumers and businesses alike.
Grocery stores in the region are frequently selling out or limiting egg purchases, and egg prices have increased to nearly $10 per dozen at some stores.
The bird flu has been circulating in the United States since February 2022, originally transmitting from wild birds to domestic commercial flocks. When one bird is infected by the H5N1 virus, the entire flock needs to be culled (that is, killed) and their eggs destroyed — a devastating impact on farmers that's resulted in increased competition for a limited egg supply.
In December 2024 alone, 13.2 million egg-laying birds were culled, with over 21 million more culled in January and the beginning of February according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA.
The department predicted in January that the price of eggs will see an overall increase of 20% by the end of 2025.
In Spokane, we've already exceeded the USDA's prediction. On Dec. 17, Walmart had eggs for $4.28 per dozen, but that had increased to $5.41 per dozen by Feb. 10, or an increase of more than 26%. Regional grocery stores have had far higher prices, with a dozen at Rosauers hovering around $8 at the beginning of February.
Sticker shock over current egg prices has caused some consumers and businesses relying on eggs, like restaurants, to claim that it's due to price gouging by the powers that be.
"But I can tell you there is no price gouging. That is key. There is no price gouging. This is just supply and demand," says Tammie Hetrick, CEO and president of the Washington Food Industry Association, which represents independent grocers, convenience stores and distributors statewide.
With millions of birds needing to be killed, it will take months for new pullets (young female chickens) to start laying. Meanwhile, the prices for the current limited supply go up.
Egg prices have steadily been on the rise since January 2024, when a new state law required all eggs sold in Washington to be cage-free, which the Inlander reported about in March last year.
"We are seeing at this time more of the cage-free [eggs] being infected or at least [cage-free chickens] being required to be put down because there was an infection found," Hetrick says. "So we are all fighting for a smaller percentage of eggs in Washington state."
In addition, Hetrick says large corporate grocers dominate contracts for eggs produced in Washington due to their purchasing power. As such, people have flocked to large, corporate grocers for cheaper eggs.
"[Corporate stores] will discount the eggs and take a loss on them to drive people to the store for all the other things, because nobody goes in and [just] buys a 12-pack of eggs. They can afford to do that. Our stores can't," Hetrick says, referring to the smaller mom-and-pop grocers her organization represents.
Grocers and the average consumer aren't the only ones impacted. Restaurants with menus that heavily depend on eggs have also been scrambling to find consistent and affordable deliveries.
Don't be surprised if your favorite brunch spot has made short-term menu or price adjustments.
Many breakfast establishments, however, told the Inlander that they'd rather take a hit to their profit margins than place a surcharge on egg dishes.
Old European and Little Euro are among the many brunch places tightening their belts.
"The price has dramatically increased over the last year and it's definitely affecting our profit margins," says Jeff Panagos, regional manager for the restaurants. "With the cost of eggs right now, we're trying to do our best to look at ways to cut other costs back so we don't have to raise prices for the eggs."
Owner Tami Sevier states the business is renegotiating the prices of other costs like cleaning products, equipment and maintenance. She emphasized they are not cutting back on anything that would affect their service or quality of food.
Panagos says Old European's three locations across the region use around 12,000 eggs per week. Aside from obvious menu items like eggs Benedict, omelets and fried eggs, the batters for the restaurants' popular aebleskivers, crepes and hotcakes also require eggs.
Panagos outlined how at the end of 2023, the company was paying $30 per case — each containing 180 eggs — but is now paying $120.
Old European and Little Euro source eggs directly from a farm in Boise, Idaho. The farm is on the smaller side and shares its trucks with other egg producers for distribution.
"One of the other farms got hit with the bird flu, which confiscated that delivery of eggs," Panagos says. "So that's kind of why we were scrambling around to find eggs."
Old European and Little Euro now are sourcing from three different distributors to acquire a sufficient quantity of eggs.
Erica Wegner, one of four owners of the Chalet on the South Hill, says that on top of the recent price increases, distributors are putting a limit on how many eggs each client can order. Though the caps vary, in mid-February she says the Chalet could only get two cases per order; it receives two orders a week. The restaurant usually uses about 500 eggs a week, which means the 360 eggs they're currently able to secure isn't nearly enough.
"We're all like scrambling around at different stores trying to just find enough eggs to use because we couldn't get enough [through our distributors]," Wegner says.
For the eggs that they do get from distributors, the Chalet now doesn't get to decide the type. From brown to white, large to medium, Wegner says they'll take what they can get for the cheapest price. To help make up for the lesser amount of eggs they've been able to buy, she says the Chalet is using liquid eggs for some dishes like scrambled eggs.
Local bakeries haven't been spared, either, as eggs are a necessity in many baked goods. Sweet Frostings Blissful Bakeshop in Spokane and Bake My Day in Spokane Valley have both forgone distributors to hunt for eggs at cheaper prices from stores like Costco, WinCo and Walmart.
"We're running to multiple different stores, we're price checking, we're spending a lot of manpower to get the cheapest egg price we can," says Jessica Atkinson, owner of Sweet Frostings.
Bake My Day owner Courtney Ruby has also opted to do the shopping herself since buying the business in August.
"I just have to run around and get what I can because a lot of the stores also have limits on how many you can buy. So that's a lot of time out of my day just to simply literally go find eggs," Ruby says.
Ruby notes that a five-dozen pack of eggs at Costco used to be $15 to $16 when she took over the business last year. That price has increased to around $25, if they're even in stock. On top of the time spent hopping from store to store, she's also had to make adjustments to the bakery's recipes.
"Like our scones used to have eggs in them, and when the egg prices started going up, I revamped the recipe [to] have it not contain eggs at all," she says.
Both bakeries say the higher cost will be a hit to their profits as they don't plan to raise prices.
"We haven't taken a price increase since 2020," Atkinson says. "The margin just gets smaller and smaller and smaller."
Egg shortages and higher prices are affecting organizations that provide nutritious meals to kids, too.
The Northeast Youth Center in Hillyard recently shared on social media that the shortage has impacted the daily breakfasts it provides for more than 50 kids.
"Normal suppliers could not satisfy our order for us, so my chef got in her car and started driving around to every grocery store and everybody was out," says Northeast Youth Center Executive Director Sheila Geraghty.
The center provides two hot meals a day for kids in its before and after school programs. As part of a state-run food program, those meals must fulfill state nutritional requirements such as including a source of quality protein.
Finding only empty shelves, the center was forced to switch up its menu and serve items without eggs. In the meantime, they've been dishing out granola and yogurt, cereal, waffles, and pancakes.
"It's not that big of a deal, but the kids love having a traditional breakfast," Geraghty says. "So we just have to substitute those with something else for now."
Nudo Ramen House in downtown Spokane also temporarily took eggs out of its dishes. In an Instagram post shared on Feb. 10, the restaurant stated it wouldn't be able to provide extra eggs in bowls of its ramen due to a supplier-set cap. Days later, Nudo noted via DoorDash that it had temporarily removed all egg products from its dishes.
The bird flu and resulting egg supply issues won't see a quick resolution.
In the meantime, experts and businesses we spoke with for this story had the same message: Buy only what you need, and continue to support local businesses amid challenging times.
"Eggs are just such a staple for everybody and all baked goods for every home," Old European's Panagos says. "It's not just hurting restaurants, it's just hurting everybody."
