The price for wholesale eggs has dropped drastically, per CNBC.
According to Urner Barry, a market research firm that focuses on things like meat, eggs and seafood, the price for wholesale eggs fell to $2.61 a dozen on Monday.
Compare that to the price of a dozen wholesale eggs on Dec. 19: $5.43. As the outlet noted, that’s a 52% drop.
A senior data analyst at Urner Barry, Angel Rubio, said prices have “collapsed”.
“That’s a big, big down adjustment,” Rubio said.
This means people may see some relief from skyrocketing egg prices in recent months, which were caused by several factors, including an outbreak of bird flu, which killed more than 58 million birds in 47 states, according to to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Last December, egg prices in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada rose 64%. This led, among other things, to waiting lists at small-scale farms that sell fresh eggs.
However, the drop in prices may not immediately match lower grocery prices, CNBC noted.
Rubio told the outlet that wholesale prices are more sensitive than retail prices. If the wholesale price moves 10%, then the retail price would move 2% on average, he added. He also said it takes about a month for changes in wholesale prices to affect consumers.
Related: ‘Will the chickens go on strike?’: Consumers outraged as egg prices in some US states skyrocket by more than 64% in one month
Brian Moscogiuri, a global trade strategist at Eggs Unlimited, told the outlet that lower demand after the holiday season and a few weeks without new bird flu outbreaks have given egg producers and sellers pause.
But, he added, because avian flu has been found in non-chickens, it is still “a big risk on the way to spring migration,” Moscogiuri told the outlet.
