US-AGRICULTURE-POULTRY-DISEASE-CONSUMER-FILES

A spike in egg prices last month tied to avian influenza is hitting New Jersey bakeries, which may mean customers will be paying more for sweets soon. The price increase is also showing up at local grocery stores.

(Abdullah Pope/AFP/Getty Images)

When Tod Wilson recently stopped at a wholesale supplier to pick up 30 dozen eggs for his Englewood pie shop, he said he "had to do a double take."

"Seventy-five dollars for 30 dozen large eggs? It's just unheard of," said Wilson, the owner of Mr. Tod's Pie Factory. "This is literally the highest I've ever seen it."

The wholesale price for a carton of a dozen eggs has more than doubled over the last month, as deadly Avian flu spread through the Midwest, leading to the loss of tens of millions of egg-laying hens. The dramatic price increase has left New Jersey food businesses like Wilson's that need eggs to make their signature products struggling to cope with the additional costs.

Brian Pansari, the owner of La Bonbonniere Bake Shoppes in Edison, Woodbridge, South Plainfield and Somerset, said up to 90 percent of what he sells has eggs as an ingredient and his costs have skyrocketed.

"Our egg prices have pretty much this week now tripled. When we were paying $400 for our weekly egg order, now we're talking about $1,200, which is a significant impact on the business right now," he said.

Pansari said he's hesitant to increase prices for his customers and plans to wait to see if the market stabilizes. If he has to raise prices, he said he'd "prefer to do it one time and not have to keep doing it."

Rick Brown, a senior vice president at the commodity market firm Urner Barry in Bayville, said egg prices started to creep up around April 22 -- shortly after the influenza outbreak hit the Midwest -- and have been climbing nearly daily since then.

The wholesale price for a carton of a dozen eggs in the Midwest stood at "an all-time high" of $2.62 on Monday, Brown said, up 120 percent from $1.19 on April 22.

At this time a year ago, Brown said, the price was $1.28 a dozen and the peak price last year was $2.27.

Retailers are beginning to notify consumers about supply side issues and pass costs along. #HPAI #eggs pic.twitter.com/zd8kZUCVXB — Urner Barry Eggs (@UBegg) June 1, 2015

Shayle Shagam, a livestock, poultry and dairy analyst for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the wholesale price for a dozen of large eggs in the New York metropolitan area was about $2.49 a dozen on Friday, up from $1.18 on May 1.

"The tightness in supplies has translated into that increase," said Shagam.

The jump in egg prices is showing up on grocery store shelves as well.

Jo Natale, vice president of media relations for Wegmans, said all of the supermarket chain's fresh poultry, fresh egg and pasteurized egg suppliers are based on the East Coast and haven't been affected by the outbreak.

However, Natale said, "high demand and a dwindling supply has driven up the wholesale cost of fresh eggs sold in dairy. Because our costs have gone up, we have had to raise retails on these products."

The price for a dozen large eggs now costs $2.29, up from $1.99, Natale said, while jumbo eggs has been increased by 10 cents to $2.59.

The price increase has been even more dramatic for eggs sold in liquid form, which are known as breaker eggs, and used for cake mixes, salad dressings and other products. The wholesale price for those eggs jumped from 63 cents a dozen on April 22 to $2.35 on Monday, Brown said.

Paul Bruno, the owner of Palermo Bakery, which has three locations in northern New Jersey, said his business uses about 3,500 fresh eggs a week and roughly 700 quarts of liquid eggs or frozen eggs. Bruno said he hasn't yet been hit with dramatic price increases but he knows it's coming.

"It's definitely going to be impacting us," he said. "The best you can hope for is that it doesn't last for long."

Erin O'Neill may be reached at eoneill@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LedgerErin. Find NJ.com on Facebook.