High inflation and a bird flu outbreak of historic proportions combined to drive up the price of eggs, a grocery store staple for most families, by more than 100 percent in 2022, prompting criticism from consumers and accusations of price gouging.

There may be some relief in sight, but it’s not a sure thing, Greg Iacurci reported for CNBC.

Wholesale egg prices have fallen by more than 60 percent since December, according to wholesale food industry data provider Urner Barry.

Prices fell to $2.05 a dozen eggs on Feb. 6 — a 62 percent decrease from the peak of around $5.43 on Dec. 19 and a 47 percent decrease from the beginning of 2023, according to Urner Barry, whose Midwest Large White Egg price benchmark is a frequently cited barometer in the egg industry.

“Prices have collapsed,” said Angel Rubio, senior analyst at Urner Barry, in a CNBC interview. “That’s a big, big adjustment downward.”

Consumer resistance to record high prices in grocery stores around the U.S. is one reason for the declining and below-average egg demand, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Wholesale prices have been declining steadily from their late 2022 highs which has helped support retailer efforts to bring pricing down to a more consumer-acceptable level,” the USDA said Feb. 3.

Egg prices rose faster than almost all other consumer items in 2022. The Jan. 12 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that while overall inflation was 6.5 percent, food inflation in 2022 was 10.5 percent and eggs took the top spot with the biggest price increase of any single food item from December 2021 to December 2022.

In December 2022, the average price for a dozen eggs in the U.S. was $4.25, up from $1.79 a year earlier, according to Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis data.

The deadliest outbreak of bird flu ever hit the U.S. in 2022, killing about 58 million birds across 47 states including 43 million egg-laying hens, according to the USDA. The egg supply was significantly disrupted, food economists said.

Bird flu cases usually scale back by summer, but that didn’t happen in 2022 and new outbreaks coincided with peak demand around the winter holiday season.

As expensive as eggs have become, some social media posts were flagged for making exaggerated claims, according to the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

“The gov says food inflation is 7%,” read text in a photo in a Jan. 12 Facebook post. “Ask them how that’s possible when eggs have gone up 700% & every single thing I buy has gone up OVER 7%.”

This post was flagged as part of a Facebook effort to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. Poynter said it has partnered with Facebook owner Meta in its effort to address false information on its social network.

It can take months after a bird flu outbreak for a farm to start producing and selling eggs again. Meanwhile, buyers must find new suppliers to stock grocery store shelves — a dynamic that played out nationwide and raised prices, CNBC reported.

On average, it takes about four weeks for retail prices to reflect wholesale price trends, Rubio said. That means consumers may start to see some relief soon.

 The last bird flu outbreak was Dec. 20, according to the USDA. This has given the market time to recover, said Brian Moscogiuri, global trade strategist at Eggs Unlimited, one of the largest U.S. egg suppliers.

Food economists have downplayed claims by a group called Farm Action, which asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the possibility that a “collusive scheme” among egg suppliers pushed up egg prices rather than bird flu.

U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island, seeks a federal investigation into possible price gouging. Reed said he wants federal regulators and Congress to prevent the egg market from becoming dominated by a few large corporations exerting significant control over the market and maintaining artificially high egg prices over the long term.

“Industrial egg producers seem to be feeding the American public a phony narrative about why egg prices are so high and could be using anti-competitive pricing tactics to force consumers and retailers to shell out more for eggs,” Reed said on his website.