AUSTIN, Texas — For about four months, Anna Anderson has been working as an assistant manager of Jim’s Restaurant in North Austin.
In that short time, she is already noticing a sharp increase in the cost of eggs.
“We’ve gone from $60 for a case, which is 13 dozen eggs, so you think about we’re dishing out,” Anderson said. “They go quickly, to now over $100 a case, [and] it hits hard.
To address the cost of eggs, Jim’s Restaurant is adding a surcharge of 50 cents per egg to all menu items that have eggs.
Anderson is fearful about what could happen if costs continue to go up.
“People already feel like they’re spending too much money, so it’s like ‘well now it’s another cost,'” Anderson said. “There’s not very many people in here, it’s just kind of dead.”
Central Austin is also feeling the effects of the egg prices at Quack’s 43rd Street Bakery. Baker Tyler Carpenter is managing small margins while maximizing every ingredient available.
“Depending on the product, it could be as much as 0.25 (cents) more to make that product, just because the cost of eggs,” Carpenter said. “We are all definitely feeling the pinch of food being much more expensive and so that has had kind of a cascading effect.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts egg prices could rise more than 40% this year.
To help lower the costs, the Trump administration announced a 5-point plan to combat the bird flu outbreak. The plan aims to financially help farmers whose flocks have been impacted by the avian flu and possibly create vaccines and therapeutics for chicken flocks.
Anderson’s hope is for some solution to be cooked up for the everyday American.
“What do you leave people that’s all they can afford? Like, all I could afford was the meat, the bread, the eggs. And now they can’t even afford the eggs,” Anderson said.
The Sec. of Agriculture said it will take some time before customers see cheaper prices at the grocery store.