Natural eggs sit stacked on a loading dock in Petaluma, California, on February 18, 2025.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Photos Information | Getty Photos
The Division of Justice and 17 state attorneys basic reached a $3.3 million settlement with three of the nation’s largest egg producers for alleged worth manipulation that “artificially elevated” egg costs for shoppers and retailers, federal and state officers stated Monday.
The egg producers — Cal-Maine Meals, Versova and Hickman’s Egg Ranch — additionally agreed to donate about 53 million eggs mixed to meals banks or associated non-profits as a part of the settlement.
Primarily based on the present common worth of a dozen massive Grade A eggs — about $2.19 per dozen — these eggs may very well be value roughly $9.7 million on the retail degree.
The DOJ and state coalition alleged the businesses “illegally coordinated” over almost three years to inflate a every day worth index for eggs, citing the outcomes of an investigation into egg-price collusion that started greater than a 12 months in the past.
The allegations of collusion come amid an affordability crunch amongst U.S. shoppers and as inflation has risen at its quickest tempo in additional than three years.
Egg costs grew to become a poster little one of kinds for top inflation within the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In February 2023, for instance, common retail costs for a dozen massive Grade A eggs had spiked 150% from a 12 months earlier, the most important annual change on file, in line with knowledge from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
On the time, economists had pointed largely to a historic and lethal outbreak of chicken flu, which killed hundreds of thousands of egg-laying chickens and crimped egg provide.
In separate firm statements, Cal-Maine and Versova denied wrongdoing and pointed to chicken flu as the first driver of upper egg costs, somewhat than their alleged collusion.
Mantiqueira USA, which owns Hickman’s, stated in a written assertion that the conduct referenced within the authorized grievance predates its acquisition of Hickman’s in November, and that it is “dedicated to complying with all relevant legal guidelines and rules and to conducting enterprise with the best requirements of integrity.”
A free eggs give away on March 21, 2025 in New York Metropolis.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Photos Information | Getty Photos
The Justice Division and multistate coalition alleged that Cal-Maine, Versova and Hickman’s “secretly communicated” from roughly June 2022 to March 2025 to affect the every day egg worth quotes printed by Urner Barry, which has an egg-pricing benchmark “extensively utilized in egg provide contracts,” in line with New York Lawyer Normal Letitia James.
New York was among the many 17 states that had been events to the lawsuit.
The others had been Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin.
The proposed settlements, which should nonetheless be accredited by a federal choose, would forestall Cal-Maine, Versova and Hickman’s from participating in “coordinated” egg worth manipulation sooner or later through measures such because the adoption of antitrust compliance packages and the appointment of antitrust compliance officers, the Justice Division stated Tuesday.
“Meals affordability is a prime precedence of the Antitrust Division,” stated Former Appearing Assistant Lawyer Normal Omeed Assefi of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division. “These settlements resolve years of conduct that dragged on People’ funds and their on a regular basis lives.
Cal-Maine stated in a written assertion that it denied it had engaged in any wrongdoing or violated the regulation. It additionally stated it “continues to imagine that such claims are baseless and that its conduct was lawful, applicable and in the perfect curiosity of supplying eggs to {the marketplace}.”
In an e-mailed assertion, Versova stated its determination to simply accept the settlement “merely displays our agency intention to place this matter behind us and give attention to our enterprise.”
Cal-Maine agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle the coalition’s civil claims. Hickman’s agreed to pay $1 million and Versova $800,000.
Cal-Maine and Versova pointed to repeated outbreaks of chicken flu in recent times as the first cause for greater egg costs.
“The interval reviewed by the DOJ was a very difficult time,” Sherman Miller, president and CEO of Cal-Maine Meals, stated in a written assertion. “Momentary provide shocks, together with in reference to a number of outbreaks of avian influenza, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate and different market dynamics — compounded by excessive inflation on the time — induced egg costs to surge periodically over the previous 5 years.”
Egg worth quotes dropped “considerably” from their peak after the defendants realized of the investigation in March 2025, the DOJ stated Tuesday.
Versova additionally stated most of its eggs are offered on “grain-based contracts,” that means the worth its prospects pay “fluctuates primarily based on the prices of grain inputs for hen feed.”
