Turkey Eggs…

Here on the farm, where we raise hens who lay with the natural cycle of the seasons, we are seeing more eggs every day. This increase in supply has allowed us to start stocking the “Grab and Go” fridge at the farm again.

I write about the state of the egg business a lot, as it’s something I get asked about daily. I can speak most confidently about how eggs work in a pasture-raised or backyard situation because that’s what I truly know.

The industrial and commodity egg world is a conversation that takes a lot more research for me to be able to speak to. Eggs, like most of the rest of our food, are treated as a commodity. The USDA provides a variety of daily, weekly, and monthly reports for everything from eggs to feed grains, livestock and vegetables, meat, and so on. To write this today, I read the “Weekly Shell Egg Demand Indicator” and the “Egg Market Overview.” The latter is 4 pages long and hardly seems like an overview. I feel like I need a degree in economics to fully understand these reports. I do find them fascinating though.

What I do know is that nationally the “Negotiated” wholesale price for eggs is lower this week. The price peaked a few weeks ago, and at the very peak of pricing, egg “interest” was down. This means people were buying fewer eggs due to the price. But prices have started to come down.

As the wholesale prices have dropped, the “Demand Indicator” has slowed its decline. As Easter approaches, retailers will be stocking up at lowering prices to meet the highest demand we’ll see all year. It will be interesting to see how prices adjust over the next few weeks at the store.

The other way that egg prices are starting to come down is due to increased imports of eggs from other countries. Turkey, for example, plans to import 420 million eggs to the US this year, 7x the number they imported to our country last year. This means the eggs in the grocery store cases may be coming from the other side of the world.

Chad Gregory, president and CEO of United Egg Producers, said, “We support the temporary import of egg products to help ease the strain on the US egg supply as we navigate this challenging time of continued highly pathogenic avian influenza detections” (Source https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/02/24/business/egg-prices-turkey-vaccine)

I find this all totally unbelievable. The CEO representing US egg producers is in support of importing eggs from the other side of the world!

The following factors are sending the clowns, the elephants, and the little puffy dog stampeding about the circus tent:

1. Federally negotiated pricing of our food

2. Market manipulation of supply and demand

3. The importing of food that we assume is ‘fresh’ and ‘local’

These are the biggest reasons I’m so passionate about creating local food systems.

Prices should be set by the farmers raising the food.

We should work together to eat more seasonally, so we can better manage supply and demand. AND…

Ultimately, we should KNOW where our food is coming from.

Given all that, you can feel confident buying eggs (or anything) from us

1. Unlike what you may see at the grocery store, our prices are not set by the “Weekly Shell Egg Demand Indicator.” Our prices have changed about every 2 years and reflect changes in input costs (so far numbers we’ve never seen go down). We strive to keep things as consistent as we can.

2. You can also know that in the summer, we will have more eggs available than in the winter months. Summer is a great time to stock up and preserve eggs for winter months.

3. You know exactly where your eggs are coming from. Our eggs don’t fly internationally to get to your refrigerator.

All that to say, we are thrilled to be your egg farmers and to be able to offer you the convenience of both ordering ahead and “Grab & Go” from the farm.

I hope you are enjoying this sunny spring day,

Aila