(WSPA) – You may have noticed at the grocery store or even out to eat the price of eggs has soared.
Clemson researchers told 7NEWS in part that’s due to avian influenza killing off 58 million birds in the last year.
“This is the biggest I can remember and I have been doing poultry quite some time,” Professor of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at Clemson University, Dr. Glenn Birrenkott said. “We need to remember egg production in the state of South Carolina is the number two agricultural commodity, I think.”
While the hardest hit area of birds dying off or having to be exterminated was Iowa it has affected the supply of eggs nationwide. Many restaurant owners say they have seen prices quadruple in just a short amount of time.
“We opened in August of 2021,” Co-Owner of Maple Bakery and Coffee House, Brandon Mccann said. “At the time I was buying eggs from Walmart in large quantities and I was getting 36 eggs for about $3.50 so about 10 cents an egg. About a year and a half later that same set of eggs is $14.76 which is right at about 40 cents per egg.”
While the demand remains high, eggs are an important ingredient in many items that restaurants serve. Keeping up with the demand has been difficult.
“As a brand, all of Eggs Up Grill buys around 12 million eggs a year,” Owner and Operator of Eggs Up Grill in Clemson, Darby Smith said. “We go through anywhere from 3,500-4,500 eggs a week just at this location.”
Restaurant owners we spoke with said while raising prices are not on the forefront of restaurant owners’ minds currently, if prices rise and the supply is low it is something they would have to think about.
“Unfortunately if the price of eggs does keep increasing we may have to look at either increasing the prices of our goods or cutting out some things that take a lot of eggs to make.” Mccann said.
“Researchers do expect the price of eggs to come down in the next few weeks. The price of a dozen eggs currently is between $4 and $9.