President Donald Trump’s administration introduced a five-part plan Wednesday to combat surging egg prices but cautioned that it may take time before consumers notice lower prices at the checkout counter.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the plan includes a $500 million investment to strengthen biosecurity measures for farmers, $400 million in aid for those affected by avian flu, and $100 million for research into vaccines and therapeutics for U.S. chicken flocks. It also proposes reviewing and potentially rolling back certain state-level animal welfare regulations the administration considers restrictive.
Additionally, the administration is negotiating to import 70 million to 100 million eggs from other countries in the coming months, Rollins said.
She warned that egg prices could continue rising as the Easter holiday approaches, a period of historically high demand.
Why This Matters
Egg prices have nearly doubled in the last six weeks since President Donald Trump, who campaigned vigorously on grocery prices in the 2024 election cycle, took office last month. According to the most recent data from the Agriculture Department, a dozen eggs cost, on average, $8.03. That figure has jumped by $3.42 since January 10, when 12 eggs cost $4.61.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins speaks to members of the press outside of the White House in Washington, D.C. on February 14, 2025.
AFP/Getty Images
What to Know
Trump vowed to bring down the costs of things like eggs and milk on his first day in office, but appeared to backtrack on that promise during his first week back at the White House, admitting that it would take some time for those costs to come down.
The president has taken a more aggressive stance in recent days, telling reporters on Friday that Rollins was “going to do something with the eggs.” Trump blamed the Biden administration for skyrocketing grocery prices, saying that, “We inherited all the problems.”
Rollins did not specify which countries would provide egg imports as part of the five-pronged plan, but Canada, which has been a target of Trump’s trade policies, is the largest source of eggs imported to the U.S. In 2023, Canada exported $44.1 million in eggs to the U.S., according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity.
The agriculture secretary has also said that her department has evaluated 150 sites to address risks and that it will pay 75 percent of costs needed to repair biosecurity vulnerabilities.
What People Are Saying
Brooke Rollins, Trump’s agriculture secretary, wrote in a Wednesday op-ed for the Wall Street Journal: “The Agriculture Department will invest up to $1 billion to curb this crisis and make eggs affordable again. We are working with the Department of Government Efficiency to cut hundreds of millions of dollars of wasteful spending.”
President Donald Trump said during Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting: “These eggs are a disaster. The secretary of agriculture is going to be showing you a chart that’s actually mindboggling what’s happened. How low they were with us [in the first Trump term], how high they are now. I think we can do something about it.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a Tuesday report: “Retail egg prices continue to experience volatile month-to-month changes due to an outbreak of HPAI that began in 2022. HPAI contributes to elevated egg prices by reducing egg-layer flocks and egg production.”
What’s Next
Rollins said in the WSJ op-ed published Wednesday that the new strategies “won’t erase the problem overnight, but we’re confident that it will restore stability to the egg market over the next three to six months.”
This story contains reporting by The Associated Press.
Update 02/26/25 12:21 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
