Former President Donald Trump recently attributed the rising cost of eggs to President Joe Biden, suggesting that current prices reflect poorly on his predecessor. Speaking to ABC News, Trump stated, “You remember the big thing with eggs? They hit me the first week, ‘Eggs, eggs, eggs,’ like it was my fault. And I said, ‘Well, wait a minute … I didn’t create this nightmare, this nightmare was created by [Joe] Biden.’”
Looking at the economic picture Agricultural market experts strongly criticized Trump’s claims. They think it’s pretty disingenuous to single out a sitting president on egg prices. The discussion on egg prices has been heated. The average retail price of a dozen eggs jumped from $4.95 in January to $6.22 in March. This dramatic, self-inflicted increase has created a critical new burden on household budgets throughout the country.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics even announced a historic surge in egg prices. Consumers are starting to feel the financial strain from this 25% cost hike. Economists widely observed a spike in retail prices in early 2023. In the interim, the wholesale price of eggs has dropped to less than a third of their peak. On January 21, the wholesale price stood at $6.55 but dropped to $3.25 by April 30, marking a 50% decrease.
David Ortega, a food economist at Michigan State University, emphasized that Trump’s claim about egg prices decreasing by 87% is inaccurate. As he noted last week, egg prices never really decreased by 87% to begin with. He stressed the difficulty of deciphering the cause of rising food prices.
In addition, external factors such as avian influenza have devastated our egg supply. This dramatic jump in egg prices is a result, in no small part, of these disruptions. Even with all of these challenges, demand for eggs has been rock solid. That’s according to Trey Malone, a food economist at Purdue University, who pointed out an unexpected trend. Even with the unprecedented increase in egg prices over the last year or two, demand for eggs is surprisingly strong. He continued, “For all the times folks complain about high egg prices, they’re still buying eggs.”
To be sure, economists will tell you a president can’t really do anything about today’s egg prices. Ortega drove home this point when he said, “The president has almost no control over egg prices. Parke Wilde, a food economist at Tufts University, urged consumers to focus on retail prices rather than wholesale figures: “I encourage people who are reading the news about food prices to focus on consumer prices, not wholesale prices, because that’s what real consumers care about.”
Thankfully, the White House intervened to fix the damage. They claimed that a majority of consumers are beginning to see relief on the price of eggs at retail. According to a spokesperson, the vast majority of consumers have started seeing relief at shelf. They hope to assure that all consumers feel this relief in the next month or two.
The political conversations over rising egg prices are reaching a boil. It’s obvious that a lot more than inflammatory campaign talk is pushing these costs. This dynamic tension between supply shocks due to pandemic disease outbreaks and continued high consumer demand highlights the unique complexity of agricultural markets.
