<p>Remember when the price of eggs soared, and providers said it was inflation and higher transportation costs and a sudden drop in production and some kind of avian flu?</p>
<p>Pepperidge Farm remembers.</p>
<p>But it turns out that Cal-Maine Foods, the largest U.S. producer, more than doubled its revenue last quarter to nearly a billion dollars because of sharply higher egg prices &#8212; and profits surged 718%. And production wasn&#8217;t down. Cal-Maine, which controls about 20% of the domestic egg market, said the total number of eggs it sold rose by 1%, CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/business/egg-profits-cal-maine/index.html">reported</a>.</p>
<p>The company said the average selling price for a dozen eggs in the quarter ending February 25 was $3.30. That&#8217;s more than twice what a dozen cost a year earlier, when its average price was $1.61, Cal-Maine said. Thus, net income soared to $323.2 million from just $39.5 million a year ago, CNN reported.</p>
<p>In January, the cost of a dozen eggs surpassed the price of a pound of beef, marking the first time that’s happened since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) began keeping <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000708111">data</a> in 1980. The average price of a dozen large Grade A eggs ran at $4.82 in January 2023, while a pound of ground beef was $4.64, the BLS said. In January 2022, eggs were $1.93, and beef was $4.77, but egg prices have soared by 70% in the last year alone, according to the bureau.</p>
<p>Farm Action, a farmer-led advocacy group, says the “real culprit” behind sky-high prices is a “collusive scheme” among top U.S. egg producers to fix prices to gouge consumers. In a January letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Farm Action <a href="https://farmaction.us/2023/01/19/farm-action-calls-for-ftc-to-investigate-record-high-egg-prices/?utm_source=substack&amp;amp;amp;amp;utm_medium=email">said</a> the alleged collusion has helped egg producers to “extract egregious profits reaching as high as 40%.”</p>
<p>The letter said avian flu is not to blame. “Examining publicly-available financial data from the egg industry, the letter determines that the supply disruption caused by the avian flu outbreak had an ‘apparently mild impact on the industry,&#8217;” the group said in a press release.</p>
<p>The group also said egg producers are making money hand over fist. “For the 26-week period ending on November 26, 2022, Cal-Maine reported a ten-fold year-over-year increase in gross profits — from $50.392 million to $535.339 million — and a five-fold increase in its gross margins,” the letter said.</p>
<p>Some lawmakers have criticized egg producers’ pricing, accusing them of price gouging.</p>
<p>“American families working to put food on the table deserve to know whether the increased prices they are paying for eggs represent a legitimate response to reduced supply or out-of-control corporate greed,” said a letter sent by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) to Cal-Maine and other large egg producers last month.</p>
<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.</em></p>
<p><em>Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.</em></p>

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Eggs-Tortion? Profits For Largest U.S. Egg Producer Soar 718%