Willow Valley Resort's bakery is charging a little more for its cakes, pastries and whoopie pies.

St. John's Episcopal Church in Lancaster is shelling out more to hold its weekly cooking class for elementary school children.

Grocery shoppers know why.

In the last nine months, the price of eggs has nearly doubled. And they're not alone. Chicken, beef, flour, milk, fruit, juice — it seems like everything — has also been up.

"It's like a perfect storm, with low inventory and high demand domestically and abroad," said Greg Martin, the county's extension poultry educator.

Stores across the country are selling a dozen large Grade A eggs at an average of $1.92 this week.

United States Department of Agriculture figures show that is up from $1.19 last September, $1.03 in June and just 84 cents in April.

Martin blamed the high egg prices on several factors, led by the dramatic rise in the price of the corn and soybeans used to feed chickens.

Corn that cost $2 a bushel in 2006 jumped to $4 last year and now is over $5. Some say it could reach $6 a bushel later this year.

Martin said the fact that soybeans are high, wheat is soaring and other grains are high at the same time corn prices are up is "unprecedented."

He said another market factor is that China is feeding more and more of its grain to animals instead of exporting it.

Dave Andrews, vice president of sales and marketing at Kreider Farms, said Friday the market price of large eggs — what grocery stores and wholesalers pay — broke a record in December at $1.69 a dozen.

Currently, it's $1.62.

On the matter of demand, Andrews said when egg prices are low, people may buy more, but they won't necessarily buy less when prices are high.

People need eggs, he explained.

Kreider Farms produces about 18 million eggs a week, some from farms in Manheim and Mount Joy.

Tom Beachler, Kreider Farms' operations manager, said with the expected May completion of a new Mount Joy laying house, Kreider Farms will be one of the largest egg producers in the country.

The price of flour is jumping right along with eggs. Just ask Andy Peachey of Willow Valley Resort's bakery, which uses a lot of both in the bakery's breads, pies and other goodies.

"We're actually in the process of a price increase right now, about 5 percent," Peachey said. That comes after a slight increase in prices at the bakery last year.

Other businesses affected by high egg and other wholesale food prices are biting the bullet.

"We haven't raised prices," said Jennie McElrath of Jennie's Diner, 2575 Lincoln Highway East. "We're hoping sooner or later it will break."

Some area food banks that have to buy food are concerned by the higher prices.

Amy Mountain of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank said the organization relies on donated food and she's grateful when donors step up to meet the challenge of increased prices.

Sauder's Eggs in Lititz has donated 3,600 eggs a week for the last 10 years, she said.

Sue Martin volunteers for St. John's Episcopal Church in Lancaster.

It supports a community breakfast for people in need, a multi-church undertaking that relies mostly on donations.  But the breakfast budget is being affected by high milk, fruit and juice prices, Martin said.

Also, the church buys eggs for the weekly cooking class the church holds for 25 Robert Fulton Elementary School students.

Somewhere between a third to a half of the money consumers pay for eggs at the store ends up in the pockets of farmers.

Egg-selling farmers in 2007 and 2008 are enjoying good profits, even after paying higher prices for the fuel they use.

But Chris Herr of PennAg Industries said that business lost money in 2005 and 2006.

He said the nation's flock size has dropped by about 7 million birds, helping keep the price of eggs high. some of the dropoff is from farms that went out of business, but not all.

Farmers have listened to consumers and are adopting new animal welfare standards for their layer houses, he said.

"A house that used to hold 100,000 birds now has 10 to 20 percent less," Herr said.

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