New Report: HPAI-Driven Egg Shortages Cost Americans $14.5 Billion In 2024-25
Bird flu has faded from headlines, and egg prices have fallen since their historic peak in March 2025, but that does not mean that HPAI has been beaten. Our new report quantifies the economic toll of HPAI on Americans over the last twelve months, and makes the case that costs will keep piling up without strong preventative action. Key findings include:
Americans spent $14.5 billion more on eggs in the last twelve months, bringing total expenditures to $29.9 billion—almost double the $15.3 billion average seen in non-HPAI years.
This increase was largely due to sudden constraints on the supply of eggs caused by the mass depopulation of laying hens necessitated by HPAI.
Other economic impacts include government expenditures on indemnity, monitoring, and biosecurity disruptions to agricultural exports, and declines agricultural productivity. Additionally, if HPAI causes a larger public health crisis, total economic costs could reach the trillions.
Without strong preventative action, HPAI will continue to impose similar costs on American consumers, taxpayers, and farmers in the future.
The report looked at total spending on eggs from the beginning of May 2024 to the end of April 2025, broken down by retail and breaker spending. Expenditures from that period were then compared against previous non-HPAI years, going back to 2010.
Robert Yaman, CEO of Innovate Animal Ag said “The recent spike in egg prices isn’t a mystery—it’s basic supply and demand after HPAI wiped out a large share of the nation’s laying hens and shrank the egg supply. Without strong preventative action by the Trump administration, similar supply shocks are likely to happen again in the future. But with smart policy, we can protect both farmer livelihoods and grocery budgets.”
The full report can be accessed here.
