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U.S. to take a crack at Korean eggs amid shortage, price crisis

Published: 21 Mar. 2025, 18:32

CHO YONG-JUN
[email protected]

Eggs at the Gyerim Farm in North Chungcheong on March 17 [YONHAP]

The United States will import more eggs from Korea following the first batch of shipments sent to help combat a shortage crisis caused by a devastating bird flu outbreak.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said that the department is planning to acquire more egg imports from Korea, according to Reuters, during a phone call with industry groups and reporters.

While the details of the import plan were not confirmed, Korea is joining Turkey and Brazil in exporting eggs to the United States.

The United States has been suffering from a serious egg shortage for some time; the avian influence A, known as the H5N1 bird flu, broke out in the country in 2022 and killed over 166 million layer chickens since.

This, in turn, caused extreme egg inflation in the United States in recent years, a phenomenon given the tongue-in-cheek nickname "egg-flation," which resulted in a dozen eggs costing around $8, according to Bloomberg. The U.S. consumer price index for eggs also rose 10.4 percent monthly in February and recorded a 58.8 percent increase in price on year.

The soaring egg prices also led to people smuggling eggs into the country, with reports from The Telegraph on March 16 suggesting that people smuggled more eggs than fentanyl across the border in recent months.

Korean egg prices, however, have held steady in recent months. The average price for a tray of eggs was recorded at 6,380 won ($4.36) as of early March, down 4.4 percent on year — almost 80 percent cheaper than the eggs in the United States.

Korean egg prices also remain stable compared to those recorded in other developed countries, including France and the Britain.

Eggs have traditionally not been a Korean export, as the distribution costs to ship eggs abroad and process them before they hit shelves have remained unprofitable in normal circumstances — Korea only exported eggs to Hong Kong as of January, according to data from the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Gyerim Farm, a farmhouse in south Chungcheong, was the first to export Korean eggs to the United States, as the farm sent over 33,000 eggs — equivalent to 20 tons — to Georgia on March 7.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will also spend up to $100 million in funding on bird flu vaccine developments, the department said Thursday.

BY HA SU-YOUNG, KIM YEON-JOO, CHO YONG-JUN [[email protected]]