Eggs

GVP $451 million est. Up 8% year-on-year
Average farm egg prices increased 12% year-on-year
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza outbreaks caused some supply disruptions

Egg production in 2024-25 continued to recover from the consequences of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza outbreaks that occurred during 2024 in Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT. Many of the farms impacted have returned to normal production while other farms have increased their capacity to meet continued strong consumer demand for eggs. With these supply disruptions and continued consumer demand egg prices increased over the year. National egg supply is expected to have recovered by the end of 2025 calendar year. Egg GVP is estimated to be up 8% year-on-year to $451 million in 2024-25.

Production

Egg production in NSW is estimated to have decreased by just over 6% in 2024-25 reflecting ongoing disruptions caused by the outbreaks of High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI) in Victoria, NSW and ACT during 2024 and again in Victoria in 2025. While there has been a significant recovery from last year’s outbreak, gaps remain in the market in 2025.⁶⁶

The national layer flock suffered losses, of approximately 7% of Australia’s egg production capacity during 2024 with additional losses in Victoria in early 2025.⁴⁴⁶⁶ Since then many of the farms impacted have returned to normal production while others farms have increased their capacity.⁴⁴ Lean egg supply chains which are a result of the perishable nature of eggs and biological induced supply lags, makes recovery a complex process. This includes the supply of additional replacement pullets to rebuild flock numbers over and above regular industry requirements.

Australia remains free from the more severe H5 strain of bird flu, and as of mid-2025, the country had successfully eradicated H7 HPAI from poultry, following the containment of the final outbreak in northern Victoria.²⁵

Production from barn systems continued to grow with reported barn eggs share of total egg sales by major supermarkets in 2024-25 increasing to 28% from 21% in the prior year. Free range share was stable year on year, while eggs from conventional cage production systems fell to 13% share in 2024-25.⁴⁶ It is important to note however, that the market share figures do not include eggs sold through wholesale of food service outlets.

While production has been supported by lower prevailing feed costs during 2024-25 including for feed grains and meals such as soybean meal, other costs such as electricity, labour, and infrastructure have remained elevated.⁸³¹⁸⁶ Increasing biosecurity requirements also remains an ongoing cost to layer production systems.⁸

NSW egg production ^ba

Download data (.XLSX)

Source: ABARES (2025) , Australian Eggs (various issues)

Price

The average gross unit value of eggs nationally increased 12% in 2024-25 from the prior year to average $3.94 per dozen.⁶ This increase in gross unit price reflects the reduction in egg supply.

Retail prices of eggs in the supermarket majors increased by 15% year-on-year for barn system eggs, 20% for free range and 21% year-on-year for cage production systems.⁴⁶ The lower price increase in barn systems reflecting the increased efficiencies achieved as these barn systems come online.

Increased prices were driven in part by supply disruptions caused by the occurrence of HPAI and the continued demand for eggs including eggs produced using the higher cost barn and free-range production systems. Although the Consumer Price Index for eggs rose by 19% over the year to June quarter 2025, eggs continue to be considered a cost-effective source of protein compared to other animal-based options.¹⁷²⁹

Retail egg prices by production type and gross unit value

Average gross unit value
Retail Cage egg
Retail Free range
Retail Barn-laid

Download data (.XLSX)

Source: ABARES (2025) , Australian Eggs (unpublished)

Retail price premiums over conventional cage eggs

Download data (.XLSX)

Source: Australian Eggs (unpublished)

Trade

Export for eggs including shell eggs and processed egg products were valued at $1.3 million in 2024-25, up 4% on the prior year, with the majority by value going to the United States in 2024-25.

Australian imports of egg products increased 57% year-on-year to total $26.9 million. These imports included $20.1 million of processed egg products, not-in-shell, 52% of which was sourced from the Netherlands in 2024-25.¹⁵⁵

Internationally, elevated egg prices were observed in a number of countries and attributed to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). In the United States HPAI control measures saw 10.8% reduction in layers (non-organic flocks) as of January 2025.¹⁷⁴ As a result, fresh egg prices in the first quarter of 2025 averaged 220% above the average producer prices of 2024. The reduction in layer the flock also coincides with a historically low US cattle herd, the result being higher prices for a range of protein sources including eggs. However, prices have since eased with supply returning from domestic production and imports.¹⁸⁵

Outlook

Egg supply is expected to recover from the HPAI outbreaks by the end of the 2025 calendar year as Australia was declared free of H7 HPAI in poultry after Victoria completed its emergency response to an outbreak of the disease during the year.⁶⁶ The normalisation of egg supply, to meet continued consumer demand, is likely to ease egg prices, supported by relatively favourable feed input costs for producers.⁸ On-farm biosecurity will continue to play an increasingly critical role in supporting resilient egg production systems and to mitigate volatility in supply that flows through to egg prices.