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Why are eggs so expensive in the United States?
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Eggs, an everyday food on the table, have now become a popular smuggled item at the border along with drugs. This reflects the skyrocketing price of eggs in the United States. In February of this year, the price of eggs in the United States rose by a staggering 58.8% year-on-year. The average price of a dozen eggs was close to US$8, and in some areas it even soared to more than US$10. In Mexico, the same eggs cost only one-third of that in the United States.
Due to the reduction in supply, supermarkets and grocery stores in many parts of the United States posted limited purchase notices on egg shelves, and high-priced eggs in some stores were quickly sold out. A hen rental company called Rent the Chicken in New Hampshire quickly became popular. Customers can spend about $600 to rent two hens for half a year to get a stable supply of eggs.
In addition to avian influenza, the cage-free policy implemented by some states in the United States has also exacerbated the supply shortage. Currently, ten densely populated states, including California, Massachusetts, and Washington, have passed laws requiring that eggs can only come from cage-free environments. Although this farming method is more humane, it is also more vulnerable to epidemics. Agricultural analyst Brian Earnest pointed out that once an epidemic breaks out in these cage-free farms, the speed of replenishing supply will become extremely slow.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the United States has imported more than 1.6 million dozen eggs in the first two months of 2025. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has publicly stated that the government plans to import eggs from countries such as Turkey and South Korea to alleviate domestic shortages. However, the reciprocal tariff policy implemented by the Trump administration has made this emergency measure worse. Egg exporting countries such as Turkey and South Korea are now facing high tariffs, and import costs have increased significantly. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Rollins warned that this move is likely to cause U.S. egg prices to rise again in the short term. Financial analysts warned that retailers and suppliers are likely to pass on these increased costs to American consumers who are already tired of coping with high prices.
Bitcoin is highly sought after because of its scarcity, with a total supply of 21 million coins constant. Similarly, the price of American eggs has soared due to limited supply. The avian flu killed millions of laying hens, which is equivalent to the halving event in the Bitcoin world, suddenly reducing the market supply.
More interestingly, both eggs and Bitcoin have spawned similar social phenomena. In the Bitcoin world, arbitrage is a well-known way to make money. Investors use the price differences between different exchanges to buy and sell and profit from it. The most typical example is the so-called Kimchi Premium - the price of Bitcoin on the Korean exchange is always higher than the global average, sometimes the price difference is even more than 20%. Savvy traders will buy Bitcoin on the international market and then sell it at a high price on the Korean exchange to earn the difference. Although this arbitrage behavior is simple in theory, the actual operation faces multiple obstacles such as supervision, capital flow restrictions and transaction fees.
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