And you thought eggs in the US were expensive.
A single egg in the United Kingdom went for over $500 this week — but not because of bird-flu-induced “eggflation”.
The “one-in-a-billion” perfectly round egg brought in a staggering £420, or roughly $550, at auction Tuesday.
The rare egg was identified at Fenton Farm shortly before Christmas and was auctioned off to raise money for charity. All proceeds went towards the Devon Rape Crisis organization, which supports survivors of sexual violence and abuse.
“It felt like watching one of my children in a sports race when everyone was bidding. It was just brilliant. There were people in the room bidding as well and to everyone that did bid, I’m just very, very grateful,” Alison Greene, an egg handler at Fenton Farm, told BBC following the auction.
In her three years working at the farm and the roughly 30,000 eggs she handled weekly, Greene said that she had never seen anything quite like the spherical shell she discovered in January.
To make sure the egg didn’t spoil, the team preserved it in salt ahead of the auction date. Greene figured that whoever purchases the egg won’t eat it, since they’re probably just purchasing it for its rarity — or sheer absurdity.
The winning bid left Greene shell-shocked.
She originally hoped it would sell for more than £10, and her expectations were blown out of the water. She originally promised to purchase the egg herself if it looked like it was going to be sold for a low amount.
Round eggs, despite being exceedingly rare, have cropped up a few times in recent years.
In 2023, an Australian woman discovered a perfectly spherical egg in her groceries.
The year before, a family’s chicken popped out a round egg in England. The chicken, affectionately named ‘Twinskie’, had been in the family for a whopping two decades before delivering the golden egg, which they also sold on eBay.
Across the pond in the United States, egg prices have remained staggeringly high as shortages continue due to the bird flu forcing farms to cull large portions of their flocks.
The average price of eggs hit a record high of over $5.89 per dozen this month — up from $1.48 in 2020 — and the USDA predicts the costs will increase at least 41% this year on top of the already egg-zaggerated prices, The Post previously reported.
In New York City, cartons have been spotted for as high as $19.29 a dozen.
The demand has even sparked an egg smuggling trend as Border Patrol agents begin seizing more eggs than fentanyl during illegal border crossings.
