A shocking new report is blaming the nationwide egg crisis not on bird flu, but on ‘greedy’ companies that upped their prices long before an outbreak.
Among them is a single egg producer from Mississippi, which has made billions from egg sales since 2023.
According to the new report by Food & Water Watch, the company — Cal-Maine — jacked up its prices even before it was hit by the avian flu outbreak in December 2023.
The company sold 7 percent more eggs in its 2022-23 financial year than in 2021-2022.
But because it upped prices and pocketed an extra $1 off every dozen sold, its profits jumped sevenfold to $1.2 billion that year, the report says.
‘Cal-Maine fleeced $1 billion in additional profits from its customers — mainly retailers, who often pass along price spikes to families,’ says the report.
‘Cal-Maine’s shareholders especially benefited. The company’s stock is roughly three times as valuable today as it was at the start of the bird flu outbreak.’
Researchers call this ‘outrageous at a time when food costs are skyrocketing and more families than ever can’t put food on the table.’
Shoppers can thank greedy egg producers for jacking up prices, not avian flu, a report says
Researchers have blamed Mississippi-based Cal-Maine for fixing prices. It’s run by Sherman Miller
This casts an unflattering light on the firm’s $1.1 million-a-year CEO, Sherman Miller, who has been with Cal-Maine since 1996, and its board chairman Adolphus Baker.
Cal-Maine did not answer DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
The company does not appear to have addressed the claims in a press release or on social media.
In public filings, Miller has attributed price hikes to supply shocks caused by a ‘highly pathogenic avian influenza.’
The report puts a new spin on rising egg prices, which have nearly doubled from a year ago, a fact usually blamed on a virus that’s wiped out millions of hens.
It suggests that while the bird flu outbreak slightly hampered production, it in no way can account for the devastating 157 percent rise in egg prices across America.
They cost more than $10 a dozen in some stores and are missing from shelves in others. Shoppers able to snag a box face sticker shock for what was once a cheap source of protein.
Officials appear to be taking note. The US Justice Department this week opened an investigation into the cause of soaring egg prices, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The probe will assess whether large producers have conspired to raise prices or hold back supply, according to people familiar with the matter.
Called The Economic Cost of Food Monopolies: The Rotten Egg Oligarchy, the report found that bird flu alone does not account for the egg price inflation of 157 percent, as it only slightly hit production.
Eggs cost more than $10 per dozen in some parts of the US, though the national average is closer to $5
Cal-Maine mostly operates in areas that were not affected by bird flu outbreaks, researchers said
Headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi, Cal-Maine has facilities across 15 states and sells to Walmart, Costco and others
Cal-Maine crams one million hens into each of its 43 production centers, which are mostly in the South
Researchers point to Cal-Maine, which produces 20 percent of eggs cracked open across America, along with other roughly nine other big producers and some retailers in the highly concentrated sector.
‘The fewer and bigger the corporations in an industry, the more power these corporations have to sway things like labor conditions, farming practices, and prices,’ says the report.
Cal-Maine crams one million hens into each of its 43 production centers, which are mostly in the South — a factory farming approach that raises the risk of disease and future pathogens, adds the study.
It’s not the first time that Cal-Maine, one of the few big egg producers to report on its financial data, has been spotlighted for allegedly pushing up prices.
Cal-Maine was accused of price fixing by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren at the start of the Avian flu in 2022. At the time, the company did not answer requests from Reuters for comment.
The following year, Cal-Maine and three other egg producers were ordered to pay $17.7 million in damages by a federal jury to Kraft Foods and other companies over conspiring to limit egg production.
In a statement at the time, Cal-Maine said it was ‘disappointed with the overall decision,’ but noted the company had ‘prevailed on a number of issues.’
‘Approximately 20 years ago, Cal-Maine Foods along with many other fresh egg producers in the US, responded to growing demands from consumers and retailers to improve the overall treatment of egg laying hens,’ said the statement.
This was ‘in line with other prevailing animal welfare laws across the protein industry and were not intended to restrict supply and affect prices,’ it adds.
Another advocacy group, Farm Action, which lobbies on behalf of smaller farmers, consumers and rural communities, also suspects monopolistic behavior.
The group that notes that egg production is only down about 4 percent from last year and some 7.57 billion table eggs were produced in January, yet some consumers still find egg shelves empty at grocery stores.
Farm Action pointed to Cal-Maine and other egg producers as being responsible for the price hikes.
Advocacy groups, Democratic lawmakers and a Federal Trade Commission member recently called for a government investigation after egg prices spiked to a record average of $4.95 per dozen late last month.
The bird flu is a good reason to shop for organic free-range eggs, which cost more but are healthier, researchers say
The company’s profits soared in the 2023 financial year, at what was supposed to be a rough time for the industry
Some egg shoppers are left empty-handed when they check out at their supermarket
Cal-Maine’s $1.1 million-a-year CEO, Sherman Miller (left), met last year with Kansas congressman Tracey Mann
Retail egg prices generally remained below $2 per dozen for years before this outbreak began.
Prices have more than doubled since then, boosting profits for egg producers even as they deal with soaring costs.
Experts typically blame bird flu. More than 166 million birds have been slaughtered to contain the virus.
Some 30 million egg layers have been wiped out just since January, significantly disrupting egg supplies.
The Department of Agriculture’s longstanding policy has been to kill entire flocks anytime the virus is found on a farm.
As a result, the number of egg layers has dropped nationwide by about 12 percent from before the outbreak to 292 million birds, according to a USDA estimate on February 1.
Millions more have been killed since then.
The reports come as President Donald Trump faces pressure to deliver on his promise to cut prices, even has he slaps tariffs on imports that look set to hit consumers once again.
Corporate greed has become a hot-button issue in recent years.
This was vividly demonstrated by the widespread support for a ‘vigilante’ gunman charged for allegedly shooting and killing the CEO of a health insurance company in New York in December; he has pleaded not guilty.
