Egg prices are in decline, with a dozen costing less than $5

After surging for much of the year, egg prices have declined sharply over the past week as consumers pulled back on purchases, allowing supplies to resettle at more normal volumes.

The result: The average cost of a dozen large white eggs is now $4.90, compared with an all-time high of $8.64 on March 5, the United States Department of Agriculture said Thursday.

That’s the lowest level registered since Dec. 20.

The prices for this measure remain significantly higher than the long-term average of around $2.

And the prices consumers pay at the grocery checkout in the post-pandemic-lockdown era are still higher than their pre-Covid levels.

But in its latest daily market report, the USDA described underlying price trends as “sharply lower” amid “light to occasionally moderate” retail demand.

A USDA report a week ago said there had been a lull in outbreaks of the viral bird flu that has ravaged egg-laying poultry stocks, providing “an opportunity for production to make progress in reducing recent shell egg shortages.”

“As shell eggs are becoming more available, the sense of urgency to cover supply needs has eased and many marketers are finding prices for spot market offerings are adjusting downward in their favor,” the USDA said.

Shoppers, meanwhile, “have begun to see shell egg offerings in the dairycase becoming more reliable,” the agency said.

Prices will also have more room to trend downward thanks to the Easter holiday falling three weeks later than last year, it said.

“This will give the marketplace a change to adjust prices down to a more acceptable level ahead of the holiday demand season,” it said.

Soaring egg prices had become a hot-button political issue in recent weeks, with the Trump administration’s Justice Department opening an investigation into the matter.

The rising prices also caused overall food-at-home cost to accelerate in recent months after it had cooled dramatically from the highs seen in the throes of the pandemic and post-lockdown period.

Still, food price levels remain higher across the board compared with the pre-pandemic era, thanks to the heavy bout of inflation the U.S. economy has experienced in recent years.