Â鶹´«Ã½

When stores do have eggs, consumers are starting to face limits on how many they can buy.

Eggs have become such a hot commodity, there were even a  where thieves seem to be treating the yolks as if they were made out of gold.

The problem isn't going away because the virus continues to mutate and ,ÌýÌý²¹²Ô»åÌý. When a chicken or turkey gets sick, the entire flock is  to help limit the spread.

The shortages tend to be isolated, so they might not be a problem at your store. Still, there's no way to predict when a massive farm with millions of birds might get hit, and just one of those cases can cause supply problems.

As a result, prices skyrocketed.

Jose Castillo said it's becoming hard to keep the Cuban sandwiches and king cakes affordable at his Norma's Sweets Bakery in New Orleans because he's paying nearly four times as much for eggs now.

“Oh it’s hurting man. It’s crazy how expensive eggs are," said Castillo who is one of the bakery's co-owners. “Normally we’ll get them for $35, $40 dollars a case and now we’re paying like $118, $120 dollars.�

Hard to find

Empty egg shelves are becoming more common across the United States. Sometimes shoppers have to check two or three stores or seek out a local farmer to get their eggs.

This outbreak has taken a tremendous toll on poultry since it began in 2022. Nearly 158 million birds have been slaughtered overall with the majority being egg-laying chickens.

That hurts egg supplies and drives prices higher.

With more than 300 million chickens nationwide laying eggs for breakfast and baking, the industry usually can deal with the loss of a few million birds without many disruptions.

The problems come when larger numbers of birds have to be killed. Last month, more than 23 million birds were killed — and that came right after 18 million were slaughtered in December.

When egg farmers have to kill their entire flocks, it takes at least a month or two to get new birds because the carcasses must be disposed of and all the barns must be sanitized before the farm is cleared. So the effects linger.

Egg farmers also face higher feed, fuel and labor costs these days because of inflation. Plus, farmers are investing more in biosecurity measures to try to protect their birds.

Ten states passed laws allowing the sale of eggs only from cage-free environments. The supply of those eggs is tighter and focused in certain regions, so the effect on prices can be magnified when outbreaks hit cage-free egg farms.

Cage-free egg laws already went in effect in California, Massachusetts, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Michigan. Many of the egg farms with outbreaks were cage-free farms in California.

Limiting purchases

Trader Joe’s capped purchases to one carton per customer each day, the Monrovia, California-based chain confirmed. That limit applies to all Trader Joe’s locations across the country.

“We hope these limits will help to ensure that as many of our customers who need eggs are able to purchase them when they visit Trader Joe’s,� the company said in a statement sent Tuesday to The Associated Press.

In addition, consumers and several local news media outlets also reported varying limits at stores like ,Ìý,ÌýÌý²¹²Ô»åÌý locations, but not all those limits are nationwide.

A spokesperson for Kroger, for example, confirmed that the supermarket giant currently doesn’t have “enterprise-wide limits� in place — but said some of regional divisions and store banners are asking customers to cap egg purchases to two dozen per trip.

Walmart says it also hasn’t imposed national limits — except for bulkier purchases of 60-count cartons, which were capped to two per purchase, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant confirmed Tuesday.

“Although supply is very tight, we’re working with suppliers to try and help meet customer demand, while striving to keep prices as low as possible,� Walmart said in an emailed statement.

An expensive option

reached a record high in the U.S. last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. The average price of a dozen Grade A eggs in U.S. cities reached $4.95 in January, eclipsing the previous record of $4.82 set two years earlier and more than double the recent low of $2.04 that was recorded in August 2023.

Of course, that is only the nationwide average. A carton of eggs can cost $10 or more in some places. Specialized varieties, such as organic and cage-free eggs, are even more expensive.

Prices are only going to get worse. Prices always spike around Easter every year because demand is high around the holiday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted last month that egg prices were likely to go up 20% this year.

Beyond grocery stores limits, U.S. consumers are also facing more expensive eggs in some restaurants. Last week,Ìý, for example, said it would add a 50-cent surcharge per egg on all of its menus.

Cracking the case

With prices that high, it's no wonder that thieves have started to covet eggs.

Seattle police said they were investigating the theft of over 500 eggs from a restaurant last week.

Security camera footage from early Feb. 5 showed two men entering a refrigerated shed at Luna Park Cafe in West Seattle. The men removed boxes containing about 540 eggs and liquid egg products — as well as bacon, ground beef and blueberries — and loaded them into a van before leaving the scene. The stolen breakfast items were worth about $780, police said.

In Pennsylvania, 100,000 eggs were reported stolen this month from the back of a Pete & Gerry’s Organics’ distribution trailer in Antrim Township, according to police.

Those stolen eggs are worth about $40,000.

Associated Press reporters Claire Rush, Stephen Smith and Manuel Valdes contributed to this report.