USDA looks at boosting egg imports in $1 billion plan to lower prices and combat bird flu

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The Department of Agriculture plans to increase imports of eggs as part of a $1 billion initiative to address a shortage caused by the bird flu outbreak.

The avian flu strain H5N1, first identified in the U.S. in late 2021, has sickened more than 65 people over the past year and led to the death of one Louisiana resident in January. The outbreak has also led to the death of millions of egg-laying chickens in the U.S. – either from infection or culling of flocks.

As a result, egg prices have continued to rise, with the average price of a dozen large Grade A eggs hitting an all-time high in the U.S. in January, up 15% to $4.95, according to NerdWallet, citing data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"This matters for American families because eggs are a healthy, accessible and generally affordable source of protein," Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins wrote in an opinion piece published Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal.

"In many cases, families are seeing prices of $6, $7, $10 or more," Rollins said.

Turkey to send about 420 million eggs to US: USDA official

To help meet demand – and attempt to temper rising prices – the Trump administration will increase egg imports and decrease egg exports, Rollins said Wednesday during a conference of state agriculture officials, Reuters reported.

Turkey, which is one of the world's largest exporter of eggs, last week said it would export 15,000 tons of eggs to the U.S. through July. Usually the country supplies about 70 million eggs to the U.S., but has said it will send about 420 million this year, USDA chief of staff Kailee Tkacz Buller said during a press conference Wednesday.

"We already have a couple countries who are interested" in exporting eggs to the U.S., she said.

In 2023, the top exporters of eggs were Netherlands ($1 billion in exports), the United States ($483 million), Poland ($467 million), Germany ($423 million), and Turkey ($411 million), according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity.

"We will consider temporary import options to reduce egg costs in the short term," Rollins said in the Journal. "We will proceed with imports only if the eggs meet stringent U.S. safety standards and if we determine that doing so won’t jeopardize American farmers’ access to markets in the future."

Egg prices: This graphic shows how egg prices have increased over the decades

USDA efforts to lower egg prices, combat bird flu

Rollins said in the Journal piece that some of the funds for the bird flu initiative will come from cuts to USDA spending cuts administered by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and its unofficial leader Elon Musk.

"American farmers need relief, and American consumers need affordable food," Rollins said in a press release Wednesday afternoon. "To every family struggling to buy eggs: We hear you, we’re fighting for you, and help is on the way.”

Other actions the USDA will take to combat bird flu detailed by Rollins include:

• Biosecurity: The department is dedicating up to $500 million to implement a pilot program called Wildlife Biosecurity Assessments to limit contamination at commercial egg-laying farms. "USDA will now provide this consulting service at no cost to all commercial egg-laying chicken farms," Rollins said in the Journal piece. "We will also pay up to 75% of the cost to repair biosecurity vulnerabilities."
• Financial relief: Farmers whose flocks were hit by avian flu will have access to $400 million in increased financial relief, and assistance for faster approval to restart operations after an outbreak, Rollins said.
• Vaccines: The USDA will consult with state leaders, poultry and dairy farmers, and public-health professionals on possible use of a vaccine for egg-laying chickens, Rollins said. The department will provide up to $100 million in research and development to improve the efficacy of vaccines and other therapeutics. "This should help reduce the need to 'depopulate' flocks, which means killing chickens on a farm where there’s an outbreak," she said.
• Easing of regulations: The USDA will examine "the best way to protect farmers from overly prescriptive state laws, such as California’s Proposition 12, which established minimum space requirements for egg-laying hens," Rollins said. The law has helped drive the state's average price of eggs to $9.68 a dozen, she said. "We also want to make it easier for families to raise backyard chickens."

Contributing: Gabe Hauari, Dinah Voyles Pulver and Karen Weintraub of Paste BN; Reuters.

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