The One Company That’s Profiting From Soaring Egg Prices
Cal-Maine Foods, the owner of Farmhouse Eggs, Sunups, Sunny Meadow, Egg-Lands Best, and Land O’ Lakes eggs, has been able to profit most from skyrocketing egg prices due to the fact that its facilities remain the only ones not affected by the spread of Avian Flu.
Eggs are the staple of most contemporary breakfast meals as well as a cooking ingredient in a lot of baked goods and lunch and dinner meals. That is why everyone has taken notice of the skyrocketing price of a dozen eggs even from just a few short months ago, and Cal-Maine Foods facilities are reaping the benefits.
It would be easy to point the finger at the reason for the price spike at the over-debated inflation problem America is currently facing. That easy target is not the true answer for why eggs appear to be a luxury item at present. The real reason is the Avian Flu, which has ravaged and killed over 50 million birds in the United States since the start of 2022, except at the Cal-Maine Foods facilities.
This has created a major shortage of eggs in this country due to the number of egg manufacturers that were leveled by this virus taking out their egg-producing birds. The one egg manufacturer that is the defacto beneficiary of this bird flu outbreak is Cal-Maine foods, which has not had even one positive test for Avian Flu at any of its facilities. This has put them in a position to reap major financial rewards since their production volume has thus far escaped being impacted by this problem.
This egg shortage is responsible for Cal-Maine Foods being able to report record quarterly profits and sales for the nation’s largest egg producers. On the list of the brand names that they distribute are some of the top-selling eggs in all corners of America like Farmhouse Eggs, Sunups, Sunny Meadow, Egg-Lands Best, and Land O’ Lakes eggs. All of their competition has been impacted by the Avian Flu, and that has allowed Cal-Maine foods to set the price on the market, which has created a windfall of profits for the company.
According to CNN Business, “Cal-Maine’s profit increased 65% to $198 million during the three months ended Nov. 26 from a year ago.” The retail price of eggs has steadily increased throughout 2022 by 59.9 percent. It increased between the months of November and December by 11 percent in just that small span of time. The forecasts from Cal-Maine are anticipating that there is no end in sight for the egg shortage and they are anticipating that the supply will remain tight and their profits will continue to break records.
As of December 28, 2022, Cal-Maine Foods reported $801.7 million in sales, which was a 110 percent increase over the same quarter in 2021. In a statement relayed by CNN Business, the company said the reason for the huge increase was, “driven by record average conventional egg selling price” to its retail customers. (Walmart is its largest customer.)” When the biggest purchaser of your product is also the country’s largest food distributor and all your competitors have been impacted by a virus that your company has been able to avoid, you are going to set new bars and records with your product’s dominance of the marketplace.
As far as Mr. and Mrs. Consumer, it appears that we are going to be paying a lot more for our eggs in the coming year and with all the other inflationary and recession concerns, it is not a great time to be a consumer of products in our country’s economic machine. All we can hope for is that the Avian Flu lets up long enough for competitors of Cal-Maine Foods to regain their footing and start pressing the market with egg products to eliminate the shortage advantage that Cal-Maine has on consumers at the moment.
