Easter egg dyeing is a tradition for many families. Will high egg prices stop that?
Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this story misidentified where The Hunter family lives. They live in Ashland, Ohio.
Melissa Hunter's three kids don't know that egg prices have been unusually high this year or at times, hard to find. Hunter and her husband have continued to buy and eat eggs for breakfast.
The family's yearly tradition of dyeing Easter eggs before the holiday won't be affected, either.
"I'm hardcore about my traditions," she said. "When it comes to the holidays, I'm not going to take that away from my kids because – oh my gosh – I have to spend two or three more dollars (for eggs)."
"It's more important for them to see these traditions and to do them to bring us together," Hunter told Paste BN.
Demand for egg-dyeing kits is high, CEO says
Hunter isn't the only one who is planning on sticking with real eggs and dyeing them for Easter, said Joe Ens, CEO of Signature Brands, which makes PAAS egg dyeing kits.
PAAS has been shipping 20% more egg-dyeing kits to retail stores this year than last, making it their strongest year yet, he said. The company has sold more than 10 million kits a year in past years, Ens said.
Customers are very loyal to the egg-dyeing tradition, Ens said.
A survey that PAAS did in January showed 94% of those who celebrate Easter planned to dye eggs this year. But 78% of families said they would dye fewer eggs this year than in past years due to egg costs.
"This is all about family time and long-held traditions and a rise in the price of eggs is not going to be enough for consumers and their families to not engage in a 140-year-old tradition," Ens told Paste BN, referring to the age of the PAAS brand.
Some are also looking at "egg-turnitives," or other products to dye or decorate using PAAS and other kits such as potatoes, marshmallows, cookies and pasta. PAAS made some videos for its social media accounts of some of these alternatives.
This year's shopping season after Valentine's Day to Easter was longer since Easter, which falls on April 20, is so late this year, Ens said. That has meant egg dyeing kits have been on display longer for consumers to see and buy them, he said.
What's been going on with egg prices?
The price of eggs in the U.S. has continued to be volatile, even as wholesale egg prices in recent weeks have declined and demand for eggs will likely increase with Passover and Easter holidays. The rise in prices and supply issues have been largely driven by the highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, outbreak.
Earlier this year, the steep rise in prices and issues with supply as massive flocks of egg-laying hens were being killed in bird flu outbreaks also caused stores to run out of eggs and limit the number of cartons as people were stockpiling and in some cases panic-buying eggs.
Some restaurants also started slapping an egg surcharge onto their menu items.
Egg prices at the grocery store have come down from their highs earlier this year. But retailers have not lowered the price to coincide with the drop in wholesale market prices, which started in mid-March. That may be in part, experts said, to retail strategy and the upcoming expected demand for eggs for Easter and Passover.
There's a lag between wholesale and retail prices and retail prices often take weeks to adjust because stores sell inventory purchased at higher wholesale costs first, said Jason Nickerson, principal in the food & agribusiness division of global consulting firm Kearney's consumer practice.
Retailer pricing strategies play into this, Nickerson said.
"Retailers may delay passing savings to consumers to recover costs or maintain margins, especially with seasonal Easter demand keeping retail prices elevated," he said.
Amy Nixon, an independent Dallas-based economist, agrees.
"It’s common every year for egg prices to increase slightly before Easter because stores know there will be demand. In this case, because egg prices have already been high and consumers have still been buying, stores aren’t incentivized to decrease them yet. Expect retail egg prices to drop after April 20," she said.
Typically Americans will spend and are willing to go into debt for holiday celebrations, Dixon said.
"I do not expect this year to be any different, especially since eggs are not a high ticket price item in general. People will still buy them and celebrate Easter," she told Paste BN.
Why is there so much volatility in the egg price market?
The latest consumer price index released on April 10 reported the average U.S. city price of a dozen large grade A eggs at retail stores in March was $6.23. That's the highest price for eggs since the recent egg price crisis began. The CPI is a monthly a measure of prices paid for consumer goods and services by the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics.
But the latest wholesale egg market report on April 11 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture listed the average wholesale price of loose, white large shell eggs at more than half the CPI cost or $3.08 per dozen. That's lower than the $3.26 per dozen reported a week earlier.
And data gathered by Paste BN on April 10 at several retail stores in a St. Louis suburb ranged from $4.19 to $5.49.
The wholesale price of eggs have come down because the demand of eggs fell from earlier this year, partially because egg demand tends to drop after Christmas but also because some consumers likely chose not to buy eggs at the high prices and farmers were able to replenish the supply as there have been no significant bird flu outbreaks in a month, said Emily Metz, president and CEO of The American Egg Board, which represents farmers.
There were 23 consecutive months of record-high demand for eggs and that trend just ended in late February, which was the all-time high for wholesale egg prices, Metz said.
Metz and experts in the industry said egg prices could go back up with Easter demand and retail strategy.
And more bird flu outbreaks could also cause more problems in the supply chain and cause prices to rise, she said.
"Unfortunately, we are not out of the woods here," Metz told Paste BN. "We are still very much in an unfortunate crisis with regards to our supply and that is really entirely due to avian influenza."
The next thing to watch, Metz said, is the spring migration of birds back north and whether they will spread the virus further in the U.S.
Retailers are working through inventory of high-priced eggs in the system and barring any further significant outbreaks we should expect the consumer prices to come down, said Matt Sutton-Vermeulen, principal in the agriculture & food practice of Kearney.
While the U.S. egg supply remains tight, Sutton-Vermeulen said, "we are now estimating recovery time for egg farms are now at a minimum of 12 to 15 months barring any further significant" bird-flu outbreaks.
"All current market signs are leading us to believe that demand for eggs continues to be inelastic which means a relatively small dip in supply leads to a higher price because it’s difficult to substitute for eggs and their value to consumers is high," Sutton-Vermueulen told Paste BN.
Family loves to dye eggs and have an Easter egg hunt
Hunter, who lives in Ashland, Ohio, said she doesn't think she's paid more than $5.97 at Walmart for eggs. She paid $4.97 on a recent trip.
Hunter said she and her husband, Josh, love to have eggs for breakfast and have continued to buy eggs with high prices. They will continue to buy eggs, regardless of the price, she said.
"We're both teachers. We're never going to have enough money with three kids," she said. "But my philosophy on life is 'You only live once.' This is hard times for everyone and you've just got to do it."
Hunter and her husband, Josh, will go outside the evening before Easter and hide the dyed eggs for the kids to have an egg hunt.
While Hunter knows the dyed eggs can be eaten, she and her husband are not fans of hard-boiled eggs and the kids don't like eggs. So she'll save them for a few days and give some to the family dog and throw the rest away.
"To me, buying a plastic egg is lame. That's not what I want," she said, adding that she buys plastic eggs to decorate but still wants her kids to have the egg-dyeing experience.
Allie Hunter, 6, loves art, so "it's fun to watch her be creative about the dyeing process. Bo (who is 3), he just throws them in the cup and there's dye flying everywhere," their mom said. Taylor, who is almost 1, will sit in a high chair and just play.
Josh Hunter didn't dye eggs as a child, so he likes his family's tradition "to do something that brings our family together," his wife said.
Upholding that egg-dyeing tradition is too important, even with higher-than-usual egg prices, Melissa Hunter said.
The kids don't understand that prices are up, so Hunter said she's not telling her kids "I'm sorry... eggs are too expensive."
This story has been updated to correct an error.
Betty Lin-Fisher is a consumer reporter for Paste BN. Reach her at blinfisher@USATODAY.com or follow her on X, Facebook or Instagram @blinfisher and @blinfisher.bsky.social on Bluesky. Sign up for our free The Daily Money newsletter, which will include consumer news on Fridays, here.