Breakfast joints like Waffle House are the latest victims of soaring egg prices, in effect since President Donald Trump entered the White House.Prices are expected to rise even further due to the imminent bird flu.This means that the price of a dozen eggs is now 60% more than it was in 2024—and over 160% more than it was in 2019, according to a CBS News price tracker.
Not only does this affect the cost of consumers’ in-home breakfasts, but this increase will also affect multiple commercial eateries, including Waffle House.
The continuing egg shortage caused by HPAI (Bird Flu) has caused a dramatic increase in egg prices. Consumers and restaurants are being forced to make difficult decisions,” Waffle House Inc, wrote in a statement to the Daily Beast.
It added that effective Feb. 3, a temporary 50-cent per egg surcharge will be applied to all menus, emphasizing that the change is hopefully not permanent.“As long as they are available, quality, fresh-cracked, Grade A Large eggs will remain a key ingredient in many of our customers favorite meals. While we hope these price fluctuations will be short-lived we cannot predict how long this shortage will last. We are continuously monitoring egg prices and will adjust or remove the surcharge as market conditions allow,” the rest of the statement read.
During her first press briefing on Jan. 28, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt shifted the blame for skyrocketing egg prices to former President Joe Biden’s administration, claiming the administration “directed the mass killing of more than 100 million chickens, which has led to a lack of chicken supply in this country, therefore a lack of egg supply, which is leading to the shortage.”
This is half true, Poynter reported. The fact-checking site explained that during Biden’s administration, over 100 million egg-laying chickens died of bird flu or had to be put down to curb the spread of the virus, which did lead to higher prices. However, it is worth noting that depopulation is a common practice that is a part of the USDA’s bird flu mitigation strategy, which was also used during Trump’s first term.
Prices for national trading of trucklot quantities of graded, loose, White Large shell eggs increased $0.15 to $6.70 per dozen with a higher undertone,” the United States Department of Agriculture, USDA, reported in a Jan. 31, 2025 review.
