Eggs are a minor part of U.S. food spending; Americans spend slightly less than 1 cent of each food dollar on supermarket eggs. The USDA regularly notes that eggs are more volatile in price than other items in the food basket and respond to holiday demand. Egg prices rose 12 percent during the two weeks leading to the year-end holidays, reaching a nationwide average of $2.27 for a dozen for Large white eggs Grade A or better. The price dropped to $1.90 this week, according to the USDA’s National Retail Report, which looks at advertised prices for table eggs at major supermarkets.
“Featuring of specialty shell eggs is dramatically higher with ad space more than double, and led by a substantial increase in supermarkets advertising cage-free eggs,” says the report.
Cage-free eggs averaged $2.96 for a dozen white Grade A eggs, or $1.29 more than a dozen “regular” Grade A white eggs. USDA certified organic eggs were advertised for an average $3.99 a dozen for Grade A white and $4.48 a dozen for Grade A brown eggs. Eggs high in Omega-3 acids and vegetarian-fed eggs also sold at a premium to conventional eggs – 40 cents a dozen for white Omega-3 eggs and $1.32 for white vegetarian-fed eggs.
A suburban Washington store marked “cage-free non-GMO” eggs at $4.99 a dozen – the carton said the eggs were organic – next to conventional eggs at $1.59 a dozen.
Conventional flocks produce the vast majority of U.S. eggs, said United Egg Producers. As of September, 4.2 percent of egg-laying hens were on organic farms and 4.5 percent of the U.S. total were cage-free.