‘Egg-cellent News’: Waffle House Eliminates Surcharge On Eggs

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Restaurant chain Waffle House announced Tuesday that it has removed a surcharge on eggs that was implemented earlier this year amid soaring egg prices.

“Egg-cellent news … as of June 2, the egg surcharge is officially off the menu. Thanks for understanding!” Waffle House said in a July 1 post on social media platform X.

Waffle House had added a 50-cent surcharge in February.

“While we hope these price fluctuations will be short-lived we cannot predict how long this shortage will last,” it said at the time.

The restaurant chain, with 1,900 locations spread across 25 states, serves around 272 million eggs every year.

Egg prices have been rising following an outbreak of avian flu that has affected millions of birds since 2022, negatively impacting egg production.

In August 2023, the U.S. city average price of a dozen eggs was $2.04, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

This more than tripled to $6.22 per dozen by March 2025. However, prices have since dipped, with eggs costing $4.54 per dozen in May, down 27 percent from the peak in March.

The fall in prices came after Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a $1 billion strategy on Feb. 26 aimed at combating avian flu.

In a June 11 statement, the White House credited President Donald Trump for “defeating inflation,” including the falling prices of eggs.

“I ate there [Waffle House] today to celebrate!” Rep. Jimmy Patronis (R-Fla.) replied to a post celebrating Waffle House’s decision.

In a June 27 report, the Department of Agriculture said wholesale prices for graded, loose, white large shell eggs fell by $0.19 to $2.54 per dozen “with a weak undertone.”

Egg Prices and Flu

The strategy Rollins introduced in February to fight avian flu and reduce egg prices set aside $500 million for biosecurity measures at egg farms, $400 million in financial relief for farmers, and $100 million for research on vaccines.

In a June 26 statement, the USDA provided an update on the strategy, highlighting that wholesale egg prices have dropped by 64 percent, and retail prices by 27 percent, from their peak earlier this year.

“When President Trump entered office, the cost of eggs was at a record high, seriously denting consumers’ wallets after years of awful inflation,” Rollins said.

“On my first day as Secretary, we got to work to implement a five-pronged strategy to improve biosecurity on the farm and lower egg prices on grocery store shelves. The plan has worked, and families are seeing relief with egg prices.”

More than 900 biosecurity assessments have been carried out across the United States so far, USDA said, adding that the agency is covering the full cost of assessments, as well as part of the costs involved in improving biosecurity measures at farms.

The agency is offering financial relief and support to farmers to accelerate the repopulation of poultry flocks following any detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

“Since February 27, 2025, when USDA increased indemnity values available to producers affected by HPAI, over $70 million has been paid out to directly support layer flocks,” the USDA said.

“These increased indemnity rates have provided producers a level of support and stability to help them in moving forward to repopulate their flocks as quickly as possible.”

USDA has also boosted imports to stabilize the domestic egg supply and ease the burden on consumers.

“Since January 2025, more than 26 million dozen shell eggs have been imported from Brazil, Honduras, Mexico, Turkey, and South Korea for breaking and pasteurization, increasing the quantity of eggs available to consumers,” it said.

In a June 19 post, the United Egg Producers association said the avian flu has affected 53 commercial egg farms so far this year, with more than 39 million birds impacted.

Flu detections at egg farms have “slowed in recent months,” the association said. In January and February, 22 farms were affected each month. This dropped to three farms in May and one in June.