Dive Brief:
- Cal-Maine is set to pay $1.5 million and donate 30 million eggs, part of a larger agreement with the Department of Justice and a group of states alleging that three egg giants colluded to manipulate prices.
- The settlement follows an investigation into whether egg companies shared bidding activities between each other in a coordinated effort to manipulate an industry price index. Cal-Maine will donate the eggs to nonprofits and foodbanks across the 17 states taking part in the settlement.
- In addition to Cal-Maine, settlements were reached with Hickman’s Egg Ranch and Versova totaling a combined $3.3 million between the three companies. Cal-Maine said in a statement the agreement is not an admission of guilt.
Dive Insight:
States and the Justice Department alleged that for years, egg producers artificially inflated bids submitted to an industry index that determines how much grocery stores, restaurants and other buyers pay for the product. The scheme allegedly occurred between June 2022 and March 2025, when egg prices reached a record high for consumers.
“No product more quintessentially represents affordability than the price Americans pay for eggs,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in a statement. “These actions prove this Department’s continued commitment to protecting competition and providing real relief for everyday Americans’ pocketbooks.”
States included in the settlement include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
As prices of everyday essentials like beef and eggs reached record highs, state and federal regulators have focused on antitrust action, claiming that consolidation in the industries have led consumers to pay more. The Justice Department also opened an antitrust investigation into beef producers in May, saying it is exploring “every law enforcement tool available to help reduce food prices.”
Companies, however, say prices are rising for other, largely uncontrollable reasons. A devastating outbreak of bird flu has wiped out chicken flocks, with many farmers just now recovering. In beef, drought has whittled down cattle supply to its lowest in decades, prompting prices to rise.
In a statement, Cal-Maine said the period under review by the Justice Department was a “particularly challenging time” for the company, which was why prices rose.
“As farmers, we face extreme variability across supply and demand in dynamic and often unpredictable markets,” Sherman Miller, president and CEO of Cal-Maine, said in a statement. “Temporary supply shocks, including in connection with multiple outbreaks of avian influenza, the COVID-19 pandemic, weather and other market dynamics – compounded by high inflation at the time – caused egg prices to surge periodically over the past five years.”
Cal-Maine maintains that communications around bidding “did not impact egg prices in any market.” It also said that it left the cooperative in May 2024, “prior to and unrelated to the initiation of the DOJ’s investigation.”
All three egg companies have agreed to implement new compliance measures, including appointing new antitrust compliance officers. Donated eggs will go to nonprofits and foodbanks
As egg prices come down from record highs, so too are profits for leading producers. Cal-Maine reported a 53% decline in net sales for the first quarter of 2026.
