South Korea

South Korea is experiencing what local media have termed "eggflation." In early 2026, the benchmark price of a tray of 30 large eggs exceeded ₩7,000 for the first time in years, a level not recorded since the large-scale avian influenza cull of 2021. The immediate trigger was another severe bird flu season — approximately ten million laying hens, more than a tenth of the national flock, were culled over the winter of 2025–26 — compounded by expensive imported feed and a won that has hovered near ₩1,500 to the dollar.

Structural factors are also at work. South Korea's egg industry is dominated by large, high-density cage farms, which make the country almost entirely self-sufficient in eggs. That efficiency keeps Korean prices unremarkable by global standards even when they set domestic records — which explains why the price shown here can rank mid-table worldwide while Korean consumers face a historic burden. The government's response in 2026 has included opening the door to imported fresh eggs from Thailand and the United States.

Price formation itself has come under scrutiny: South Korea's competition regulator sanctioned the national layer association for coordinating benchmark price increases between 2023 and 2025, a period in which production costs were broadly stable. The headline figure for South Korea is drawn from KAMIS, the government's agricultural price service, converted from the standard 30-egg tray, and daily price observations at major online marts are used to round out the picture.