California egg prices rose dramatically over the past month because of the highly pathogenic avian influenza—commonly known as bird flu—and other issues affecting farms across the state and throughout the country, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The price of a dozen large, white eggs had spiked to approximately $8.97 per dozen in California as of Jan. 3, up from $5.28 in late November 2024, a roughly 70 percent increase, the USDA reported.

Bird flu cases in California have been reported in Butte, Merced, Riverside, Sacramento, San Joaquin, El Dorado, Monterey, Tulare, Kern, Fresno, and Stanislaus counties in recent weeks.

As of Jan. 6, there have been 19 affected commercial flocks, three affected backyard flocks, and a total of 4.6 million birds affected in this outbreak in the state.

Discounted eggs are out of stock at a Sprouts store in the Mira Mesa neighborhood in San Diego on Jan. 6, 2025. (Jane Yang/The Epoch Times)

Meanwhile, farmers are trying to manage the market conditions. Frank Hilliker, owner of Hilliker’s Ranch Fresh Eggs in San Diego County, said he has been rationing his product by limiting the number of eggs that his customers can buy at his farm store.

“We as egg farmers are doing everything we can to mitigate the circumstances of avian influenza,” he told The Epoch Times.

Hilliker, who has about 30,000 egg-laying chickens, has also had to raise his prices from $3 a dozen to $4.50 to meet increased demand at his ranch. He also sells to restaurants and grocery stores.

“We have a lot of loyal customers that come to us because they want fresh eggs,” he said. “We’re trying to help out all the people who want to come get eggs.”

Hilliker said he could close his farm store and sell all of the eggs to the stores and restaurants for more than $8 a dozen, but he prioritizes selling directly to the public. Among his customers are fixed-income and elderly people, as well as families.

Grocery stores are also having to adapt to current market conditions. At the Krisp market in San Diego’s Golden Hill neighborhood, manager Francisco Hernandez said demand for eggs in his store has slowed because of high prices.

“It’s costing us more than double than what we used to pay,” Hernandez told The Epoch Times. Instead of buying his usual 18 cases every week, he said he’s buying seven or fewer every other week.

Discounted egg shelves are empty at a Vons store in the Mira Mesa neighborhood in San Diego on Jan. 6, 2025. (Jane Yang/The Epoch Times)

Brian Earnest, lead economist on animal protein at CoBank, said people will likely continue to see increased prices until the market corrects.

“California’s egg market is dealing with a unique set of challenges that have precipitated higher prices for consumers,” he said, noting that until the current challenges subside, the cost to produce and buy eggs in California will remain elevated.

While Earnest acknowledges bird flu’s role in driving food prices higher—saying the disease outbreaks have kept egg prices intermittently high for the past three years—he also cites California regulations, in particular Proposition 12.

In 2018, California voters approved the law, also known as the Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act, which required that all eggs sold in the state be laid by cage-free hens by 2022. The U.S. Supreme Court heard constitutional arguments against the law but upheld it, arguing that states can create their own animal welfare laws.

Before Proposition 12, voters in 2008 approved Proposition 2, known as the Standards for Confining Farm Animals Initiative, which gave egg-laying hens at least enough room to turn around freely. The law went into effect on Jan. 1, 2015.

Egg shortage signage is displayed on partially empty shelves at a Sprouts Farmers Market grocery store in Lawndale, Calif., on Jan. 2, 2025. Bird flu and other factors have contributed to an egg shortage in the state. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

Daniel Sumner, agricultural and resource economics professor at the University of California–Davis, said that the egg market works like any other market and is vulnerable to supply shocks and government restrictions. Proposition 12 banned eggs that are normally $1 cheaper per dozen than the cage-free eggs mandated in California, he said.

Sumner was senior economist at President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers and served under President George H.W. Bush as assistant secretary for economics at the USDA.

“Because we limit our access, California markets are also more prone to price spikes,” he said.

Prices rise with regulation, inflation, and other government-created issues, Sumner said.

“Voters chose to make the market more vulnerable to natural supply variability,” he said. “Anyone who pays attention to food prices knows that whether lettuce, oranges, or peaches, prices fluctuate with weather, plant and animal diseases, and other temporary disruptions.”

At the end of the day, the consumer pays the price or misses out on an important staple.

“Eggs have long offered the consumer an affordable and nutritious option, and I do hope the industry is able to return production to levels that will satisfy egg market needs,” Earnest said.