WASHINGTON — As Americans continue to reel from the high price of eggs, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Friday the United States is importing them from South Korea and Turkey.

Speaking outside the White House, Rollins said two other countries may also begin importing eggs to the U.S. soon.

What You Need To Know

  • The United States is importing eggs from South Korea and Turkey

  • Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins made the announcement at the White House Friday

  • American consumers have been focused on egg prices as inflation remains elevated

  • Rollins said the U.S. is talking to other countries about providing eggs soon

“We are talking in the hundreds of millions of eggs for the short term — significant enough to help continue to bring the prices down for right now, and then when our chicken populations are repopulated and we’ve got a full egging industry going again,” the egg supply will move back to domestic producers, she said.

Last month, Rollins presented a five-point plan to help address a two-year-old bird flu outbreak that has decimated egg-laying flocks and helped to elevate prices. Part of that plan involved temporarily importing eggs.

Rollins said she expects the domestic egg industry to be back on track in a couple of months. She added that the most important tool for restoring flocks is through biosecurity measures that lock down barns, which she advocated as part of her plan last month.

Eggs have become the poster child for an inflation rate that skyrocketed during the COVID pandemic and has since stalled at about 3%. Largely because of bird flu, egg prices have quadrupled since February 2020, when the average price for a dozen was $1.45. In February of this year, the national average price for a dozen Grade A large eggs was a record high of $5.90, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The egg imports are beginning as the Trump administration is set to impose reciprocal tariffs on its trading partners April 2.

Rollins said in the month she has been agriculture secretary, she has spoken with hundreds of farmers.

“The No. 1 question almost every single time is the tariffs and how that’s going to affect a very difficult farm economy right now,” she said. "My answer is this: The president is very focused on realigning the American economy to better serve all Americans.”

She said the farmers understood when they voted for Trump that “there may be some short-term challenges” resulting from the tariffs, adding that she is working with the president “to have some programs in place that would potentially mitigate any economic catastrophes that could happen to some of our farmers if in fact it moves forward and some of our farmers are significantly hurt. We’re working that out.”

During Trump’s first term, the U.S. Department of Agriculture spent billions of dollars subsidizing farmers after he imposed a 25% tariff on various goods from China, which retaliated by bringing in fewer U.S. farm imports.