MOUNT PLEASANT, Texas — Newly sworn-in Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said Monday that shoppers may continue to see egg prices rise amid a nationwide bird flu outbreak.
The average price of a dozen eggs cracked records last month at $4.95 per dozen, according to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, although prices in some locations stretched even higher.
“It’s possible that prices may continue to rise,” Rollins said. “Hopefully we’re in the worst of it.”
She added, “We will fix it.”
Rollins said the Trump administration planned to release its plan to combat the spread of bird flu—which has forced the culling of millions of chickens and driven prices up—as soon as later this week.
“I think you will perhaps see some focus on new and innovative and different ways to approach this,” Rollins said, acknowledging reports the administration was looking beyond the standard procedure of slaughtering all the birds in a flock in which an infection is found.
“Do we continue to do what we have always done?” she asked. “Or do we think about new pilot projects? Do we work with different producers around the country? Are there state veterinarians who want to do things a little bit different?”
However, Rollins said tried-and-true methods like flock depopulation will still “be part of the toolkit.”
Rollins said the USDA had been able to re-hire employees working on bird flu who were laid off, in a move that made headlines and was quickly reversed. “Those employees are back,” she said.
Rollins, a native of North Texas, made the remarks after speaking to a group of farmers and agriculture industry groups at an event in East Texas.
Among the other concerns raised by those in attendance: was the difficulty of maintaining a workforce amid Trump administration rollbacks of immigration protections.