There’s no use beating around the bush: eggs are expensive. Very expensive. And it is not a personal impression. According to the National Institute of Statistics, have gone up 15.9% so far this year and, according to the OCUthe growth has been 105% compared to 2021.
When, a few months ago, we commented that the price of eggs had risen so much in the US that they had started smuggling them along the Mexican border, we did not expect that the crisis will arrive in Spain with the same force.
But we already have him here.
And why is all this happening? As always, the rise is multifactorial. As we explained this month of March, the first key is the demand itself. The sector has registered an increase that dates back to 2024with a 8% risemuch higher than that recorded for meat or refrigerated foods.
And no one can be surprised: in times of marked inflationary tendencypeople naturally switch to cheaper options and eggs, with or without rising prices, are a protein source economical. But the situation, of course, does not stop there.
More things. Many more things. To the increase in supply, we must add the increase in costs. It is not only the end of bonuses on the electricity bill, the increase in the cost of labour or the boom in the price of grain in the world after the invasion of Ukraine; is that the regulation that aims to eliminate cages has subjected the sector to more uncertainties of the usual ones.
And then there’s the flu.
A ghost haunts the farms of the world. With more than 300 million dead birdsthe world is experiencing one of the worst outbreaks (if not the worst) of bird flu in memory. And, surprisingly, Spain had avoided it. It is true that we all suspected that it was not a situation that was going to last too long: 2025 premiered with Portugal reporting the first focus of highly pathogenic influenza. It seemed like a matter of time.
Therefore, taking into account that the flu was one of the key factors in the problems of Americans with eggs, this article is the “chronicle of a crisis foretold.”
Because, today, in addition to the 45 wild outbreaks, there are eleven outbreaks in poultry throughout the country. And we must not forget that the fact of detecting a single sick bird entails “the sacrifice of 100% of the poultry herd on the affected farm.”
In other words, to the problems of demand and costs, problems of supply are added.
What can we expect? At this point in 2025, everything seems to indicate that there is only one scenario on the table: that of egg prices that will continue to grow. The reason is simple. There is no not one of the factors that are behind the “ovoflaction” that seems to be improving.
In fact, the thealth, regulatory and macroeconomic order it can only cause (at least temporarily) supply to sink further.
As I said at the beginning, according to the INE, the egg is the food that more has risen in price in 2025. And the problem begins to be another: that this rise could drag down the rest of the essential products (and the cheapest proteins) throughout 2026. What is clear is that no one has found the goose that lays the golden eggs.
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In Xataka | The United States has been immersed in extreme egg prices for months. Spain now faces the same problem
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