The Trump administration is importing hundreds of millions of eggs to help lower consumer prices and is expanding efforts to source eggs from more countries. Egg prices have already dropped more than 50% in the last month.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters at the White House on Friday that the United States has been importing a deluge of eggs from South Korea and Turkey, with other countries expected to add to the total.
“Right now, we’ve got Turkey and South Korea importing eggs. Just yesterday, I talked to a couple of other countries that will soon begin importing. We haven’t signed that deal yet, so I don’t want to say who it is,” she said.
Rollins added that the imports are a temporary measure to keep prices down while the U.S. works on repopulating its chicken population.
“We are talking in the hundreds of millions of eggs for the short term. So not insignificant, but significant enough to help continue to bring the prices down for right now,” she said. “And then when our chicken populations are repopulated, and we’ve got a full egg-laying industry going again, hopefully in a couple of months, we then shift back to our internal egg-layers and moving those eggs out onto the shelf.”
Egg prices were a key issue in the 2024 presidential campaign and became one of the most visible signs of inflation. From January 2021 to January 2025, egg prices rose 237%, from $1.47 to $4.95 per dozen. An avian flu outbreak largely drove this increase. U.S. Department of Agriculture procedures call for the mass culling of flocks of infected chickens to prevent the spread. The Biden administration culled more than 100 million chickens, which disrupted the egg supply.
President Donald Trump made lowering egg prices a key campaign promise as part of his broader pledge to cut inflation. The persistence of high egg prices after his inauguration drew criticism from many Democratic figures, who sought to turn it into a rallying cry.
EGG PRICES PLUNGE NEARLY $2, NOW LOWER THAN WHEN TRUMP TOOK OFFICE
Rollins unveiled a billion-dollar plan to cut egg prices on Feb. 26, which included compensating farmers and developing vaccines. One pillar of her plan was the mass importation of eggs until chicken populations are restored.
Wholesale egg prices have plunged over the past month, reaching just $3.27 as of March 21.
