ISTANBUL

The US will import hundreds of millions of eggs from Türkiye and South Korea to address a severe shortage caused by an avian influenza outbreak and supply chain disruptions, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced on Friday.

“We’ve got Turkey and South Korea importing eggs,” Rollins told reporters at the White House.

“We are talking in the hundreds of millions of eggs for the short term. (This is) significant enough to help continue to bring the prices down for right now” she said.

The US is also in talks with other countries for additional imports.

The move is part of a five-point plan Rollins unveiled in early March to combat the crisis which has driven egg prices up by 15.2% in January 2025—the largest monthly increase since June 2015. Over the past five years, egg prices have surged by 230%, according to Labor Department data.

Rollins emphasized the importance of biosecurity measures to control the avian flu outbreak, which has devastated poultry populations for nearly two years.

“The most proven way to solve for that is through biosecurity measures and what that means is locking down your barns,” she said. “Since we began doing that ... we've seen a significant decline in the bird flu.”

The US is also working to repopulate egg-laying hens, a process Trump administration claims slowed by regulations from previous administrations.

"When our chicken populations are repopulated and we've got a full egg laying industry going again ... we then shift back to our internal egglayers and moving those eggs out onto the shelf," Rollins added.

It was earlier announced that Türkiye will send 15,000 tons of eggs by June 2025 as a key short-term solution.

Long-term measures include a $1 billion investment to stabilize the market and prevent future outbreaks. “This is a pretty big, massive plan,” Rollins said on February, expressing optimism about its impact.