A few weeks before Easter, on the shelves of American supermarkets, it may soon be easier to find chocolate eggs rather than real chicken coop products. The United States has experienced an important avian influenza epidemic in recent months. Since the start of 2025, more than 30 million laying hens have been euthanized in the country. Result: the prices of this common commodity soar. In one year, they climbed 65 %. A new increase of 41 % is expected in 2025, when inflation already suffocates many American households.
This crisis is bad for Donald Trump. The American president, launched in his trade war against many countries, is forced to ask for help abroad to provide his country in eggs. The objective? Trying to meet demand and stabilize the increase in the cost of this product widely consumed by the Americans. “We are talking about hundreds of millions of short -term eggs, this Friday, March 21, the Minister of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins said. This is enough for it to help lower prices while waiting for our chicken population to be reconstructed.”
Contacts with many European countries
Because putting on a cohort of laying hens takes time. It was not until 18 months after hatching before hoping that one of these volatiles can provide its first egg. The American department in charge of agriculture was therefore also delighted in a press release on Friday to observe a decrease in the number of egg exports abroad. He believes that “keeping more eggs on the internal market helps stabilize prices”.
Despite everything, the United States will need much more to provide American supermarkets with eggs. The unlocking of a billion dollars plan for the poultry industry has been made, with more than half of these resources devoted to the implementation of biosecurity measures and research on avian flu vaccines. But, more concretely, Washington also contacted several states of agreement to urgently send eggs across the Atlantic. Turkey and South Korea have already agreed to help the country, but other powers are also under discussion with the American administration.
This is the case of several states of the European Union. Friday, the Chambers of Agriculture in Poland and Lithuania thus confirmed to AFP that they were approached by the American embassies on this subject several weeks ago. According to Danish magazine AgriwatchSweden or the Netherlands would also have been called. Just like Italy, according to information from Bloomberg. “”[Jeudi]I spoke to a handful of other countries whose production we will soon be able to import. We have not yet signed agree, so I prefer not to give their name, “just reported Brooke Rollins when he speaks.
Health standards and customs context
As revealed by Reuters, Denmark is also part of this list. However, Copenhagen has been the target of vehement attacks from Donald Trump since he took power. The American president is eyeing his autonomous territory of Greenland, rich in oil, mining and gas resources, and which he wants to take control “in one way or another”. The association for the promotion of Danish eggs, not necessarily against the idea of exporting more to the United States, however issued a reserve by recalling that the European market was itself under tensions of supply. Poland and Lithuania have also indicated that they want to export above all to the old continent to secure prices.
Another problem: compliance with European products with regard to American standards should be reviewed to export en masse to the United States. However today, “it takes years to obtain such a permit, explained Gytis Kauzonas, from the association of Lithuanian poultry. But given the situation, I think everything is possible.” Finland for its part has rejected Washington’s foot calls for these same reasons. “Launching exports is not a simple matter, because there are no agreed rules,” said Veera Lehtilä, General Manager of the Finnish Poultry Association, interviewed by the Finnish media EPN.
Donald Trump’s business strategy here seems to touch certain limits. The customs war on Europe, which promises to inflict on the United States strong pricing countermeasures, does not facilitate exchanges with the 27 at the time of soliciting their aid. Above all, the situation shows the “dependence of the United States and Europe to trade,” reacted the Danish Minister of Agriculture, Jacob Jensen, in a statement relayed by the press of the Scandinavian kingdom. Thanks to the eggs, could the EU put pressure on the president so that he influences his position on customs duties? A simple hypothesis for the moment, Brussels having not expressed his position on the subject.