Americans are decorating potatoes for Easter because eggs are so expensive

Record-high egg prices in the US are driving families towards budget alternatives for Easter decorating – including plastic, potatoes and even onions.

The average price for a dozen hen eggs hit $5.90 (£4.58) in February, more than triple what it was seven years ago.

In some states a carton of regular-sized non-organic eggs costs around $8 (£6.20).

Even where they’re cheaper, the price rises are staggering – in Illinois, the average rose more than ten times from $0.42 to $4.82 (£0.33 to £3.74).

Recent survey data from Clarify Capital found more than a third of Americans have stopped buying eggs altogether.

Previous polling suggests 94% of US families usually take part in Easter egg-painting traditions.

With just over two weeks to go until Easter, social media has seen an explosion in viral videos showing how to substitute other items to make painted ‘Easter eggs’.

One popular food blog, Crowded Kitchen, shared a recipe for balls of peanut butter, almond flour and maple syrup dipped into dyed white chocolate to make shells, viewed 64 million times.

‘I didn’t expect the reaction we got,’ creator Lexi Harrison told The New York Times.

‘The comments fell into two camps: people saying thank you and that eggs are really expensive right now, and people saying eggs aren’t that expensive so I should just dye some anyway.’

Some expressed doubts such recipes work out much cheaper than eggs, though other videos show how to dye things like potatoes, onions and marshmallows, or add decorations to plastic eggs.

Rising costs have even hit public events, such as an annual public egg hunt featuring 10,000 hand-dyed real eggs in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Young’s Jersey Dairy said this year’s eggs will be made of plastic for the first time in the event’s 40-year history.

Inflation in egg prices has mostly been driven by a huge bird flu outbreak requiring hens to be culled.

Donald Trump, who blamed previous president Joe Biden for the rise, promised egg prices would begin to fall from his first day in office.

But prices increased in February, hitting a 10-year high (of $5.90 for a dozen), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Other countries say the US have been quietly asking them if they can start exporting eggs to the States amid the flurry of Trump’s trade tariff hikes.

In recent weeks they have begun to fall again, reaching around $3.00.

Bernt Nelson, an economist at the American Farm Bureau Federation, says the price drop is largely due to ‘a sharp decrease in cases of avian influenza’.

Only 2.1 million birds were affected in March of this year, compared to 23 million in January and nearly 13 million in February.

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