Big Egg Producers Behind ‘Collusive Scheme’ to Gouge Consumers, Farm Group Says

By Kenny Stancil

As U.S. egg producers rake in record profits amid soaring prices, a farmer-led advocacy group focused on building a just and sustainable food system on Thursday implored the Federal Trade Commission to “promptly open an investigation into the egg industry, prosecute any violations of the antitrust laws it finds within, and ultimately, get the American people their money back.”

Just before testifying at an open meeting of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Farm Action sent a letter to agency chair Lina Khan detailing its “concerns over apparent price gouging, price coordination, and other unfair or deceptive acts or practices by dominant producers of eggs such as Cal-Maine Foods, Rose Acre Farms, Versova Holdings, and Hillandale Farms, among others.”

As Farm Action explained, “Egg prices more than doubled for consumers last year — going from $1.79 in December 2021 to $4.25 in December 2022 for a dozen large Grade A eggs.”

Major egg producers and their allies have blamed surging prices on a “supply disruption” triggered by the deadliest outbreak of avian influenza in U.S. history, calling it “‘act of God’ type stuff,” the letter notes.

Based on its analysis of publicly available industry data, however, Farm Action determined that while the avian flu outbreak killed roughly 43 million egg-laying hens nationwide in 2022, “its actual impact on the egg supply was minimal.”

According to the letter:

“After accounting for chicks hatched during the year, the average size of the egg-laying flock in any given month of 2022 was never more than 7-8% lower than it was a year prior — and in all but two months was never more than 6% lower.

“Moreover, the effect of the loss of egg-laying hens on production was itself blunted by “record-high” lay rates observed among remaining hens throughout the year.

“With total flock size substantially unaffected by the avian flu and lay rates between 1-4% higher than the average rate observed between 2017 and 2021, the industry’s quarterly egg production experienced no substantial decline in 2022 compared to 2021.”

Nevertheless, the “weekly wholesale price for shell eggs climbed from 173.5 cents per dozen at the end of February to 194.2 cents in the middle of March,” the letter continues.

“By the first week of April, it had reached 298 cents per dozen. For two months after this point, the wholesale price of eggs appeared to stabilize at elevated levels slightly below this peak — but then it started increasing again.

“In July, it broke previous records and reached over 300 cents per dozen. After dipping briefly in August, the rally in wholesale egg prices continued, hitting 400 cents per dozen in October and almost 450 cents per dozen in the first weeks of December.”…