Bird Flu Is Forcing Chicken And Egg Prices In Opposite Directions

Inflation has been one of the hottest topics of 2022, as the recent midterm election cycle illustrated well. The Washington Post reports that inflation has hit its highest point in 40 years, driving prices up across nearly all industries. We felt it first with rising car prices, and it has continued on to impact gas, housing, and groceries. The primary driving factors have been sudden shifts in demand due to the coronavirus pandemic and the loss of goods from both Russia and Ukraine as the former has waged war against the latter. The good news is that food inflation may finally be slowing down, as October saw a meaningful drop in inflation rates, however, not all commodities have been equally affected.

An unfortunate phenomenon has taken hold of the poultry business, as the avian world has faced a catastrophic pandemic of its own. H5N1, a strain of avian influenza a.k.a. bird flu, has swept the entire globe, and its highly contagious nature has left few species untouched. Nature reports that birds including farm-raised poultry in Europe to penguins in South Africa have seen widespread deaths from the disease. It has driven Thanksgiving turkey prices to new heights and could become even worse as birds congregate for winter migrations. But a very odd thing has happened to the American poultry industry, where egg prices are skyrocketing, but the cost of chicken meat itself has actually dropped.