Egg Magnates Accused Of Price-Fixing Scandal That Jacked Up Your Grocery Bill

Three of America’s largest egg producers agreed to settle allegations that they conspired to manipulate wholesale egg prices between 2022 and 2025. 

The companies, Cal-Maine Foods, Versova, and Hickman’s Egg Ranch, had been investigated by the Department of Justice and New York Democratic Attorney General Letitia James for more than a year. 

“When powerful corporations collude behind the scenes to raise prices, working families suffer the costs,” James said on Monday.

The investigation found the companies “secretly communicated” through emails dating back to December 2022. Hickman’s CEO emailed executives at Cal-Maine and Versova, encouraging them to submit aggressive bids for eggs on a wholesale market exchange.

Their coordinated bidding raised price measures, influencing benchmark prices published by Urner Barry, now known as Expana. Higher benchmark prices can raise the prices paid by wholesalers, grocery stores, and ultimately consumers, The Wall Street Journal reported. According to the complaint, the companies placed buy or sell orders intended to move prices, then canceled them before they were filled.  

“As a group we need to bid like they vote in Chicago, early and often,” said one alleged accomplice, according to a federal court complaint.

The executives’ plan was executed when carton prices were at record highs and eggs were scarce, The Journal reported. 

In 2022, a widespread bird flu outbreak caused egg prices to skyrocket to $5.36 per dozen in the Midwest. In December 2022, the CEO of Hickman’s sent an Urner Barry report on the Midwest’s egg prices to fellow executives, according to the complaint. “Great job in the northwest today!” he said. 

In December 2024, egg prices increased again after another outbreak of the bird flu. “Let it rip,” said Cal-Maine’s former CEO in a text to the Hickman CEO. After this, their companies began casting aggressive bids to the Egg Clearinghouse, but the orders went unfilled.

The Department of Justice and attorneys general from 17 states announced a proposed settlement on June 30 calling for the three companies to end unlawful egg price manipulation, implement compliance measures, and cooperate fully with state oversight, according to The New York Post.

Cal-Maine Foods, Versova, and Hickman’s Egg Ranch agreed to the settlement, which also included donating more than 50 million eggs to food banks and paying $3.3 million to the DOJ and 17 states involved in the investigation. 

“Under the settlement, all three companies must end their illegal coordination to manipulate prices, adopt compliance measures to prevent future violations, and fully cooperate with oversight by the states,” James said.