US to import eggs from Türkiye, South Korea to ease shortage, confirms Agriculture Secretary

The United States will import hundreds of millions of eggs from Türkiye and South Korea to alleviate a severe shortage caused by an avian influenza outbreak and supply chain disruptions, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced 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 prices down right now.”

The U.S. is also negotiating with other countries for additional imports, Rollins added.

This move is part of a five-point plan Rollins unveiled in early March to combat the crisis, which led to a 15.2% spike in egg prices 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 stressed the importance of biosecurity measures in controlling the avian flu outbreak, which has devastated poultry populations for nearly two years.

“The most proven way to address this is through biosecurity measures—locking down barns,” she said. “Since we began doing that, we’ve seen a significant decline in bird flu cases.”

The U.S. is also working to repopulate egg-laying hens, a process slowed by regulations from previous administrations, according to the Trump administration.

“When our chicken populations are repopulated and we have a fully operational egg-laying industry again, we’ll shift back to internal production and move those eggs onto shelves,” Rollins added.

Türkiye is set to import 15,000 tons of eggs by June 2025 as part of the short-term solution, while long-term measures include a $1 billion investment to stabilize the market and prevent future outbreaks. Rollins previously described the plan as “massive” and expressed optimism about its impact.