Egg prices in South Korea have already climbed past 7,000 won for a tray of 30, and this winter looks worse. Highly pathogenic avian influenza is spreading faster than in previous years.
The consumer price for 30 large eggs stood at 7,166 won as of the 17th, 7.2% higher than the daily average a year earlier, according to livestock distribution data from the Korea Institute for Animal Products Quality Evaluation. Chuseok holiday demand is adding further upward pressure.
The burden on consumers is substantial compared with the 2019-era range, when retail prices for a 30-egg tray stayed between 5,000 won and 6,000 won for several years. South Korea produces 99.2% of the eggs it consumes, leaving little room to substitute imports, so any disruption to output feeds directly into prices.
The bigger concern is that fears of another wave of highly pathogenic avian influenza this winter are greater than ever. Poultry farms recorded 62 outbreaks during the 2025-2026 winter season, up from 49 in 2024-2025 and 32 in 2023-2024, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
Layer farms accounted for the most cases at 30, and 15.13 million birds were culled during the season. Layers alone totaled 11.216 million, or 13.6% of the country's entire laying flock. Authorities were put on alert after the virus circulating this past winter was confirmed to be more than 10 times as infectious as in previous years.
The first outbreak of the coming season is also arriving earlier. It was confirmed on Sept. 12, about a month and a half earlier than the first case of the previous winter season.
The ministry says the earlier the virus arrives, the longer the containment period runs, and outbreaks tend to drag on as contamination circulates through the winter. Overseas cases among wild birds have more than doubled from a year earlier, raising the chances that infected migratory birds will carry the virus into the country.
The government has moved to tighten controls on vehicles and workers entering farms. It plans to introduce advance registration for entry and to expand unmanned checkpoints that monitor incoming vehicles with 24-hour closed-circuit cameras. Officials are also weighing a plan to assign quarantine officers one-to-one around affected farms for close oversight.
Still, industry officials warn that a supply shock would be unavoidable if chain infections spread again through large layer farms.
