Egg Producers Are More Profitable Than Ever, and the Justice Department Wants to Find Out Why
The cost of eggs is almost unbelievable at this point.
According to the latest report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the overall value of table eggs "increased 192% for the month, and the average price per dozen exported increased sharply, up 223% from $2.53 to $5.63 per dozen." The rise in cost is so severe that the U.S. Department of Justice has now opened a preliminary probe into why.
Here's what to know.
As Food & Wine previously reported, several factors have caused the price of eggs to steadily increase over the last several months, including everything from inflation to supply chain disruptions caused by severe weather. However, the most impactful issue has been the avian flu, which has caused farmers to cull millions of egg-laying hens. Some key groups disagree that the avian flu alone could have caused this large of an impact.
According to Fortune, the department's civil antitrust enforcers are conducting the investigation, which focuses on whether companies have collaborated to artificially increase pricing or limit the supply of eggs to the general public. The investigation, Fortune added, began under the Trump administration.
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"We applaud the Department of Justice's action to address the skyrocketing price of eggs. Every American has felt the financial pain caused by the power of the monopolistic egg industry," Joe Maxwell, the president and CEO of Farm Action, shared in a statement. "While avian flu is real, it is no excuse for the price being charged at the grocery store for one of the country's staples."
Farm Action noted that the wholesale price of "Grade-A, Large, White, Shell Eggs" increased from approximately $0.50–$1.30 per dozen in 2021 to $6.00–$8.00 per dozen now. Specifically, it noted that Cal-Maine Foods controls 20% of the egg market and "increased its gross profits by 237%" from the fiscal year 2021 to 2024. However, between 2021 and 2023, "their gross profits shot up by 646%." It added that "Cal-Maine has made more in a single quarter than they made in an entire year prior to the 2022 avian flu outbreak."
Farm Action stated that its evidence suggests Cal-Maine and four other "dominant egg firms" have been suppressing their supply and keeping prices elevated to continue acquiring competitive farms, aiming to "further drive market consolidation instead of investing in replenishing or expanding their flocks."
It emphasized that if history is any indication, this issue should have been resolved by now, stating, "During the 2015 avian flu outbreak, the national flock numbers were recovered within eight months, yet this time around, a recovery has still not been achieved even though it could have been."
Food and Water Watch, another advocacy group, released a new report showing that egg prices were going up before the recent bird flu outbreak despite production costs remaining stable.
"We cannot afford to place our food system in the hands of a few corporations that put corporate profit above all else," the report noted. "Nor can we allow the factory farm system to continue polluting our environment and serving as the breeding ground for the next human pandemic. We need to enforce our nation's antitrust laws to go after corporate price fixing and collusion. We also need a national ban on new and expanding factory farms while transitioning to smaller, regional food systems that are more resilient to disruptions."
"Make no mistake. Egg farmers are price takers, not price makers, on the egg market, and that market is responding to the uncertainty and chaos bird flu is causing," Emily Metz, president and CEO of American Egg Board, an organization that represents egg producers, said in a statement. "Eggs are subject to the economic laws of supply and demand. The tight egg supply caused by avian influenza, coupled with 23 consecutive months of high sales volume, has created a perfect storm in egg markets."
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