# The Scramble > The shell-egg market in one screen. The USDA national benchmark price, regional wholesale prices, the cage-free premium, weekly inventory against its five-year band, and a bird-flu tracker, pulled from the public record. One brief a week. No forecasts, no buy signals. _Data through Sep 1, 2026._ ## Latest issue: Cage-Free Large White Up 17.7% to 53 Cents, Premium at 45% (Sep 1, 2026) Cage-free large white rose to 53.0 cents, up 17.7% on the week, lifting the premium over conventional to 16.4 cents. Extra large white fell 11.5% to 39.9 cents. Northwest inventory sits 33% below its five-year median. Read: https://the-scramble.com/issues/2026-09-01 · Markdown: https://the-scramble.com/issues/2026-09-01.md ## The data ### National board The USDA national 5-day weighted benchmark: large white loose shell eggs (the free public benchmark), plus the other sizes and brown eggs, in cents per dozen, week over week and year over year. - [Brown Extra Large egg prices (national)](https://the-scramble.com/national/extra-large-brown.md) — Not recently quoted; last quoted Apr 15, 2026 - [Brown Large egg prices (national)](https://the-scramble.com/national/large-brown.md) — Not recently quoted; last quoted Aug 13, 2026 - [Brown Medium egg prices (national)](https://the-scramble.com/national/medium-brown.md) — Not recently quoted; last quoted Feb 10, 2025 - [White Extra Large egg prices (national)](https://the-scramble.com/national/extra-large-white.md) — 39.9¢/doz (as of Sep 1, 2026) - [White Large egg prices (national)](https://the-scramble.com/national/large-white.md) — 36.5¢/doz (as of Sep 1, 2026) - [White Medium egg prices (national)](https://the-scramble.com/national/medium-white.md) — 33.1¢/doz (as of Sep 1, 2026) - [White Small egg prices (national)](https://the-scramble.com/national/small-white.md) — 30.0¢/doz (as of Sep 1, 2026) ### Regions Regional wholesale prices for large white shell eggs, from the farm gate (producer FOB) to the warehouse to the store door, across the Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, South Central, New York and California. - [Midwest egg prices](https://the-scramble.com/region/midwest.md) — 64.0-73.0¢/doz (as of Aug 24, 2026) - [New York egg prices](https://the-scramble.com/region/new-york.md) — 84.0-88.0¢/doz (as of Aug 31, 2026) - [Northeast egg prices](https://the-scramble.com/region/northeast.md) — 72.0-86.0¢/doz (as of Aug 24, 2026) - [South Central egg prices](https://the-scramble.com/region/south-central.md) — 76.5-85.0¢/doz (as of Aug 24, 2026) - [Southeast egg prices](https://the-scramble.com/region/southeast.md) — 76.0-83.0¢/doz (as of Aug 24, 2026) ### Cage-free The cage-free premium: national cage-free minus the conventional benchmark, plus California, where a state mandate makes the market effectively all cage-free. - [Cage-free egg premium](https://the-scramble.com/cagefree/premium.md) — 16.4¢/doz premium (as of Sep 1, 2026) - [California cage-free egg prices](https://the-scramble.com/cagefree/california.md) — 55.0¢/doz (as of Sep 1, 2026) ### Egg products Wholesale prices for processed egg: liquid, frozen and dried egg, in cents or dollars per pound. The downstream breaking market shell eggs are sold into, a related pressure indicator around the shell-egg benchmark. - [Dried whole egg prices](https://the-scramble.com/products/dried-whole.md) — $3.50-$5.20 (as of Aug 24, 2026) - [Dried yolk egg prices](https://the-scramble.com/products/dried-yolk.md) — $3.00-$4.95 (as of Aug 24, 2026) - [Frozen whites egg prices](https://the-scramble.com/products/frozen-whites.md) — 38.0-70.0¢/lb (as of Aug 24, 2026) - [Frozen whole egg prices](https://the-scramble.com/products/frozen-whole.md) — 53.0-70.0¢/lb (as of Aug 24, 2026) - [Liquid whites egg prices](https://the-scramble.com/products/liquid-whites.md) — 10.4¢/lb (as of Aug 24, 2026) - [Liquid whole egg prices](https://the-scramble.com/products/liquid-whole.md) — 16.7¢/lb (as of Aug 24, 2026) - [Liquid yolk egg prices](https://the-scramble.com/products/liquid-yolk.md) — 83.0¢/lb (as of Aug 17, 2026) ### Inventory Weekly shell egg inventory by region, in thousands of 30-dozen cases, against its five-year band and its four-week average. Below normal signals a tight, firming market. - [Midwest egg inventory](https://the-scramble.com/inventory/midwest.md) — 573 (as of Aug 31, 2026) - [National egg inventory](https://the-scramble.com/inventory/national.md) — 1,482 (as of Aug 31, 2026) - [Northeast egg inventory](https://the-scramble.com/inventory/northeast.md) — 174 (as of Aug 31, 2026) - [Northwest egg inventory](https://the-scramble.com/inventory/northwest.md) — 46.4 (as of Aug 31, 2026) - [South Central egg inventory](https://the-scramble.com/inventory/south-central.md) — 256 (as of Aug 31, 2026) - [Southeast egg inventory](https://the-scramble.com/inventory/southeast.md) — 276 (as of Aug 31, 2026) - [Southwest egg inventory](https://the-scramble.com/inventory/southwest.md) — 157 (as of Aug 31, 2026) ### Cold storage The national monthly stock of frozen egg product held in cold storage, in pounds, from USDA NASS. A supply-pipeline read one step downstream of the shell-egg market, reported as neutral context. - [Frozen egg cold storage: total frozen eggs](https://the-scramble.com/coldstorage/frozen-total.md) — 25.7M lb (as of Jul 31, 2026) - [Frozen egg cold storage: whites](https://the-scramble.com/coldstorage/frozen-whites.md) — 1.9M lb (as of Jul 31, 2026) - [Frozen egg cold storage: whole or mixed](https://the-scramble.com/coldstorage/frozen-whole.md) — 12.2M lb (as of Jul 31, 2026) - [Frozen egg cold storage: yolks](https://the-scramble.com/coldstorage/frozen-yolks.md) — 668,000 lb (as of Jul 31, 2026) ### Retail features How hard grocery stores are advertising eggs each week: the number of stores featuring a given egg, a demand-side signal, with the advertised carton price alongside. - [Retail egg features: national large brown cage-free](https://the-scramble.com/retail/national-large-brown-cage-free.md) — 226 stores (as of Aug 24, 2026) - [Retail egg features: national large brown conventional](https://the-scramble.com/retail/national-large-brown.md) — Not recently featured; last quoted Oct 6, 2025 - [Retail egg features: national large white cage-free](https://the-scramble.com/retail/national-large-white-cage-free.md) — 949 stores (as of Aug 24, 2026) - [Retail egg features: national large white conventional](https://the-scramble.com/retail/national-large-white.md) — 1,186 stores (as of Aug 24, 2026) ### HPAI tracker Commercial egg-layer flocks confirmed infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza, by detection date, with the affected-bird counts APHIS publishes. The supply shock behind the biggest price moves. - [HPAI egg-layer tracker](https://the-scramble.com/hpai/layer-flocks.md) — 13 layer detections YTD, 16.1M birds (as of Jul 13, 2026) ### Retail prices What shoppers actually pay at the grocery register: the US average retail price for a dozen large eggs from BLS, the wholesale benchmark beside it on a different basis, and the eggs inflation rate. - [Retail egg prices](https://the-scramble.com/retail-egg-prices/us-average.md) — $2.19 (as of Jul 2026) ### Price history US retail egg prices back to 1980, nominal and adjusted into today's dollars, with the largest historical increases and a downloadable data file. - [Egg price history](https://the-scramble.com/egg-price-history/us.md) — $2.19 (as of Jul 2026) ### US production The supply side: how many laying hens are in the US, how many eggs they lay each month, the lay rate, and production by state, from USDA NASS. - [US egg production](https://the-scramble.com/us-egg-production/us.md) — 315.0 million hens (as of Aug 2026) ### Why prices are moving Why egg prices are rising or falling right now, updated every week the data moves. - [Why are egg prices falling right now?](https://the-scramble.com/why/egg-prices-falling.md) — 36.5¢/doz, the current story (as of Sep 1, 2026) - [Why are egg prices rising right now?](https://the-scramble.com/why/egg-prices-rising.md) — Not the current direction (as of Sep 1, 2026) ## More - [Key statistics](https://the-scramble.com/stats.md) - [Guides](https://the-scramble.com/guides.md) - [Issue archive](https://the-scramble.com/issues) - [Agent index (llms.txt)](https://the-scramble.com/llms.txt) - [RSS feed](https://the-scramble.com/rss.xml)