����vlog

Elevated egg prices are squeezing family budgets this Easter, prompting some Americans to search for cheaper alternatives, but experts say the situation appears to be improving. Instead of dying eggs, social media videos show some consumers are subbing in potatoes and marshmallows. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the demand for eggs improved slightly in the week leading up to Easter Sunday, but it's still lagging compared with recent years. “Major retail grocers have opted out of running their usual annual holiday shell egg promotions this year as supplies have only recently recovered sufficiently to maintain a consistent offering,” the agency wrote in its weekly egg market overview published Friday. “As a result, consumers are not seeing the usual price incentives and what few they are seeing are only relatively low in contrast with recent record price levels and not with the levels of past Easters.” The report further states that price levels to consumers have “eased considerably from early-year highs,” something President Donald Trump repeatedly touted leading up to the holiday. "We did an unbelievable job, and now eggs are all over the place, and the price went down 92%,” Trump said. It’s not clear what specific data Trump was citing in his comments Thursday. The White House didn’t directly respond to requests to clarify and instead sent a statement reiterating that “prices are down significantly since the President took office.” The latest consumer price index from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tells a different story. Data is not yet available for this month, but last month, the average price of a dozen eggs hit a new record high of $6.23. That’s compared to $5.90 in February 2025 and $2.99 in March 2024. “Egg prices are still high right now, and supplies are still low. You see wholesale prices are coming down, and that’s a really great signal for consumers,” said Jada Thompson, an associate professor of agricultural economics and agribusiness at the University of Arkansas. Thompson said the drop in wholesale prices — the price paid by large buyers like grocery chains — may not be fully reflected on store shelves just yet, in part because of holiday demand. "I expect prices to start falling after Easter,” Thompson said. Thompson said bird flu cases, which drove significant supply disruptions in recent months, are declining. "It has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with a disease that is out of everybody's control,” Thompson said. Under the Trump administration, the USDA has invested additional funding in strengthening egg farmers' defenses against the virus and studying a possible bird flu vaccine.As the virus appears to ease, many economists warn that Trump’s global tariffs could increase prices for various grocery products in the coming months. Thompson said the vast majority of eggs that Americans eat are sourced domestically, but input costs could increase because of higher import taxes. “The cost of the cartoning, the cost of the goods that go into the cleaning materials and all of the things that go into really good biosecurity are not necessarily produced in the United States,” Thompson said. “I think the concern is the cost of production go up, which effectively leads to higher costs for us as a consumer.”In a press release last month, the USDA announced new egg import commitments from Turkey and South Korea, “with discussions ongoing with other countries to further expand supply in the short term.”The USDA didn’t respond to a request for comment about how tariffs could affect those agreements. The cost of eggs will not stop one annual tradition. Trump says they will use real eggs at the annual White House Egg Roll on Monday.