logo
Egg Producers Are More Profitable Than Ever, and the Justice Department Wants to Find Out Why

Egg Producers Are More Profitable Than Ever, and the Justice Department Wants to Find Out Why

Yahoo11-03-2025

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.
Related: Concerned About Getting Eggs? Here's How You Can Rent a Chicken
"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."
Read the original article on Food & Wine

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Threats to Tesla's revenue are piling up
Threats to Tesla's revenue are piling up

Axios

time15 minutes ago

  • Axios

Threats to Tesla's revenue are piling up

Tesla faces fresh risks to a big income stream: sales of regulatory credits to other automakers under vehicle emissions and efficiency rules. Why it matters: Tesla's credit sales were $595 million last quarter and totaled $3.36 billion in the five quarters through Q1 of 2025. The credits are awarded to companies like Tesla that exceed emissions standards. Producers of gas-powered vehicles buy them to help meet various CO2 and mileage standards. The latest: Republicans on the Senate's commerce committee late last week proposed ending civil penalties under the Transportation Department's fuel economy rules. It's part of the committee's portion of the budget "reconciliation" bill — the top GOP and White House legislative priority. The provision would "modestly" cut auto prices by ending penalties on automakers that now "design cars to conform to the wishes of DC bureaucrats rather than consumers," a GOP summary states. The intrigue:"This Senate action would effectively end the market for CAFE credits," Chris Harto, a senior policy analyst at Consumer Reports, tells Axios via email. Dan Becker, who heads the Safe Climate Transport Campaign at the Center for Biological Diversity, noted: "Why buy credits if Trump gives you a get out of CAFE free card?" Driving the news: Separately, DOT on Friday issued an "interpretive rule" that bars consideration of EVs when it sets these mileage rules. It's a step toward crafting replacement standards, DOT said. This paves the way for less aggressive requirements — and less need for buying credits. State of play: Several buckets of credits benefit Tesla, the dominant U.S. EV seller. EPA emissions standards, Transportation Department fuel economy mandates, and California's ambitious clean cars program all provide opportunities. European emissions rules also generate credits. The big picture: The regulatory credit market was already facing risks before all the news late last week. EPA is planning to rescind Biden-era EPA carbon emissions rules for model years 2027 and onward. The House-passed reconciliation bill and the Senate GOP proposal would also nix them. And the House bill pulls back Biden-era DOT mileage rules. Both chambers have passed measures that end EPA's approval of California's auto emissions rules. Threat level: Potential loss of credit revenues comes at a perilous time for Tesla. Its sales have slumped in recent quarters, and CEO Elon Musk's rightward turn and alliance with Trump are among the reasons why, analysts say. The House plan ends $7,500 consumer purchase subsidies for EVs under the Democrats' 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. By the numbers: Credit revenues exceeded Tesla's overall profit last quarter — in other words, it would have been in the red without them. Yes, Q1 was atypically weak for Tesla, but consider Q4 of 2024, when Tesla reported $2.13 billion in profits that were helped along by $692 million in credit sales. In Q3, those numbers were $2.17B and $739M, respectively. Friction point: More broadly, the meltdown of Tesla CEO Elon Musk's relationship with Trump also creates new and unpredictable risks for the billionaire entrepreneur's business empire.

U.S., Chinese delegates in London to talk trade, rare earths
U.S., Chinese delegates in London to talk trade, rare earths

Yahoo

time15 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

U.S., Chinese delegates in London to talk trade, rare earths

June 9 (UPI) -- Delegates from the United States and China are set to meet Monday in London after a phone call between the nations' leaders seemingly led to a cooling of tensions related to their otherwise heated recent trade dispute. "We are a nation that champions free trade and have always been clear that a trade war is in nobody's interests, so we welcome these talks," said a British government spokesperson. The U.K. has provided the space for the countries to chat but hasn't publicly disclosed its location. American attendees are slated to include U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, while Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng will lead his country's delegation. It is expected the discussion will put a fair amount of focus on the rare earth minerals situation. The Trump administration had expected China to back down on export restrictions it had imposed in April on such minerals after talks held in May. China imposed those restrictions in response to tariffs levied by Trump on Chinese goods. The resulting trade disruption has led to a 2.9% decrease on exports to the United States from April to May, the decrease from May 2024 is 3.4% and the cumulative year-on-year decrease from January to May is at 4.9%, according to Chinese customs data. However President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke on the phone last week, and the conversation was reportedly so friendly it not only led to Monday's meeting but each invited the other to make a personal visit. American and Chinese representatives had met last month in Geneva and reportedly reached an agreement to suspend most of the tariffs that had been reciprocally imposed, but both countries have since been accused of agreement violations by the other.

JD Vance says the ‘blood feud' between Trump and Musk is ‘not going to be good for Elon' but admits he ‘suffered a lot' for the White House
JD Vance says the ‘blood feud' between Trump and Musk is ‘not going to be good for Elon' but admits he ‘suffered a lot' for the White House

Yahoo

time15 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

JD Vance says the ‘blood feud' between Trump and Musk is ‘not going to be good for Elon' but admits he ‘suffered a lot' for the White House

Vice President JD Vance acknowledged the deepening feud between Elon Musk and President Trump but emphasized his hope that Musk could eventually reconcile with the Trump administration, praising Musk's past efforts with DOGE and calling him a 'transformational entrepreneur.' While defending Trump and dismissing Musk's Epstein-related claims as baseless, Vance warned that Musk's aggressive political stance could backfire, both for his companies and the broader national interest. It's been pointed out by many spectators that the feud between the world's richest man, Elon Musk, and arguably the world's most powerful man, Donald Trump, is not going to end well for any involved. And JD Vance, Trump's political right hand, agrees. The Tesla CEO and president have fallen out to a major extent, at first over the White House's 'Big, Beautiful Bill', which Musk says will undo all the work of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But since Musk's departure from Washington D.C. several weeks ago, his attacks on President Trump have continued to ramp up. He has encouraged voters to outright rebel against the bill by contacting their political representatives, with Trump saying he was 'disappointed' in Musk for such statements. The man worth $342 billion hit back that Trump would have lost the election without his backing, with the president then threatening to terminate a host of government contracts to Musk's private entities. In response, Musk claimed that the president's name was in the Epstein files—a jibe he provided no evidence to support. Speaking in an interview this week, Vice President Vance said any notion that Trump did 'anything wrong with Jeffrey Epstein' is 'BS.' Yet while the relationship between the Musk and Trump seems to have gone past the point of no return, Vice President Vance says he still wants to see the SpaceX founder return to the fold of the Trump 2.0 team. 'My basic read on it, first of all I'm the vice president to President Trump, my loyalties are always going to be with the president. Elon [is] an incredible entrepreneur, I think DOGE was really good. The effort to root out waste, fraud and abuse in our country was really good,' Vance told the 'This Past Weekend' podcast with Theo Von. 'I hope that eventually Elon kind of comes back into the fold. Maybe that's not possible now because he's gone so nuclear—I hope it is,' Vance added. Musk's decision to go 'nuclear', as Vance describes it, may not prove to be in the best interest of his companies, such as Tesla and Space X, which may now draw the attention of the Oval Office for the wrong reasons. As a result of this concern, in the past five days alone the share price of Tesla has sunk more than 14%, with Musk's net worth taking an eye-watering hit as a result. Vance suggested that Musk may be shooting from the hip instead of assessing the ramifications of going head-to-head with the White House, adding: 'Elon's new to politics … I think part of it is this guy got into politics and has suffered a lot for it.' Indeed even prior to a spat with the White House, Musk was suffering for his political interests. While heading up DOGE, protestors to his work and the Trump administration began targeting Tesla by damaging cars, showrooms, and charging points—not only in the U.S. but also across Europe. 'The process in D.C., if you're a business leader you probably get frustrated with that process because it's more bureaucratic [and] slow moving. So I think there's some frustrations there,' Vance added. 'But I think it's huge mistake for [Musk] to go after the president like that. I think that if he and the president are in some blood feud, most importantly it's going to be bad for the country but I … don't think it's going to be good for Elon either.' Concerns have been raised about the bill on account of the fiscal ramifications of the largest tax breaks 'in history,' with previous projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) finding the legislation would add $3.8 trillion to the deficit while proposed cuts to Medicaid would shave only $1 trillion in spending. However the Trump administration said statements such as 'The One Big Beautiful Bill increases spending' and 'The One Big Beautiful Bill adds to the deficit' are false. For example, the White House points to the CBO's predictions that while tariffs will shrink the economy it will also reduce federal deficits by $2.8 trillion (the inclusion of the Big Beautiful Bill in its modeling is not mentioned). 'I think that it's a good bill and it does a lot of good for the American people,' Vance continued. 'Look, Elon's entitled to his opinion. I'm not saying he has to agree with the bill or agree with everything that I'm saying, I just think it's a huge mistake for the world's wealthiest man—I think one of the most transformational entrepreneurs ever—to be at war with the world's most powerful man who I think is doing more to save the country than … anybody in my lifetime.' He added: 'I don't want to reveal too many confidences but [Trump] was getting a little frustrated, feeling like some of the criticisms were unfair coming from Elon … the president doesn't think that he needs to be in a blood feud with Elon Musk, and I actually think if Elon chilled out a little bit, everything would be fine.' This story was originally featured on

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store