Egg shortages are now hitting restaurants, with no relief in sight

American restaurants are falling victim to a national egg shortage that has already plagued grocery stores from New York City to San Francisco and sent prices to $7 a carton.

Biscuit Belly, which has 14 locations in six states across the south of the country, has already swapped the type of eggs it buys for cheaper ones. Chief Executive Officer Chad Coulter says he has been able to find large brown eggs for $55 a case, 21% less than the medium white the company normally favors. A case typically contains 15 dozen eggs.

But costs are still about double what they were a year ago, so the breakfast chain is planning to switch to liquid eggs for dishes such as omelets, scrambled eggs and batters, he said. It has less wiggle room for other offerings such as sunny-side-up eggs.

“I tell our managers, when you’re able to get these large brown eggs for $55, you get as many as you can in your cooler,” Coulter said. “We’re just stocking up whenever we can get them at that specific price.”

Egg prices have broken record after record as bird flu spreads across the country, killing millions of chickens. A dozen large eggs in the Midwest now cost an average of $7.08 wholesale, about seven times the price just two years ago, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Some 104 million egg-laying hens have been lost since the outbreak started in 2022, with 29 million killed since October, according farmer group United Egg Producers. That’s resulted in shortages at grocery stores at a time when shoppers just keep on buying more.

Drugs such as Ozempic, designed to treat diabetes but widely used for weight loss, are boosting demand for eggs as a source of protein, said Amanda Oren, vice president of industry strategy for grocery in North America at supply-chain platform RELEX Solutions.

In New York City, prices reached as high as $11.99 for a dozen cage-free eggs at Whole Foods Inc. The national retailer placed a three-carton purchase limit on customers at some locations in the city. Customers in Nassau County on Long Island found supplies of Vital Farms pasture-raised eggs and Nellie’s free range ones sold out at Whole Foods online in the past week.

Organic eggs have been in short supply too. Over the weekend, refrigerated shelves were almost completely bare at a ShopRite in Brooklyn. The few crates left were priced at about $1 per egg. A nearby Costco was out of everything except quail eggs, according to grocery delivery app Instacart, and a Wegmans had run out of some of its store brands.

In Chicago, grocers including Aldi, Fresh Thyme and Mariano’s, a chain owned by Kroger Co., each limited purchases to two cartons of eggs. Mariano’s has put up signs on doors pointing to egg shortages, although Kroger doesn’t have a nationwide purchase limit.

The outbreak first hit grocery stores because the majority of the farms impacted by the most recent wave of bird flu supplied the retail sector, said Karyn Rispoli, managing editor for eggs in the Americas at price-reporting service Expana.

But with a carton of eggs now becoming more expensive than the liquid variety many restaurants favor, the impact is spreading to the hospitality industry. Some companies that usually crack eggs to make liquid products are now shifting to loading cartons because it’s more profitable, according to the USDA, which expects prices on the farm to surge 45% this year.

“Businesses are evaluating all of their options at this point and looking for the most affordable way to cover their needs,” Rispoli said.

That’s forcing restaurants like Biscuit Belly to scout for options. Now that the price of a case of eggs is hovering around $60, Coulter said he’s turning to liquid eggs for some of the items on the menu. That would help him cope with rising costs without raising prices to consumers.

“We know the consumer is fed up with high prices,” he said. “We’re just going to hold off for now and just watch it.”