- The largest U.S. seller of eggs, Cal-Maine Foods, reported a net income of nearly $510 million from December 2024 to February 2025. This represents a nearly 250% increase from the same period the previous year, attributed to an 80% rise in the average price of eggs.
- The CEO of the company stated that maximizing production during high demand and acquiring new assets to increase production capacity drove profits.
- Cal-Maine is cooperating with the DOJ, which announced an investigation into price-fixing in March.
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The largest U.S. egg seller reported hundreds of millions of dollars in profits as bird flu sent egg prices to record highs. The seller revealed it is cooperating with a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into price-fixing.
What are the latest numbers?
On Tuesday, April 8, Cal-Maine Foods reported a net income of nearly $510 million from December 2024 to February 2025. That’s a nearly 250% increase from the same period a year before, as reported by the Financial Times.
The company told Financial Times that it attributed the rise in profits to an 80% increase in the average price of eggs last year.
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The company’s earnings rose as egg prices climbed to record highs in February and farms were forced to slaughter roughly 30 million birds so far this year.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the price for a dozen grade-A large eggs rose to its highest level in more than a decade.
What does the company attribute its profits to?
The CEO of Cal-Maine said the company came out on the winning end by “maximizing production through a period of high demand” and “recent acquisitions, which helped increase our production capacity in this challenging environment.”
The results come as the DOJ announced in March that it is investigating whether Cal-Maine and other companies engaged in price-fixing.
Who is making the accusations?
Advocacy groups for independent farmers accused the company and other large egg sellers of price gouging as egg prices reportedly fell from record-highs of nearly $9 a dozen to just under $4 a dozen on April 2.
However, Cal-Maine notes that it made “significant progress” towards the tail-end of the U.S. egg shortage by increasing its number of egg-laying hens by 14% and investing in safety measures against avian flu.
Cal-Maine has dropped prices amid the DOJ probe and said it is cooperating with the investigation.
However, this is not the company’s first run-in with legal trouble. In 2023, authorities found Cal-Maine and other egg producers guilty of price-fixing and ordered them to pay more than $50 million.
Will egg prices continue to fall?
According to the Financial Times, U.S. officials said Americans should soon see falling prices for eggs as supply recovers and purchase limits are lifted.
