DOJ opens investigation into egg companies for price-fixing

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Politico

03/07/2025 04:01 PM EST


The Justice Department is investigating whether the nation’s largest egg producers are conspiring to keep prices high as the bird flu outbreak worsens and grocery stores start setting rations for customers, two people familiar with the matter told POLITICO.

The price-fixing investigation is in very early stages and targets large egg producers such as Cal-Maine Foods and Rose Acre Farms, the people said. The Capitol Forum first reported the DOJ investigation.

The Justice Department declined to comment. Cal-Maine and Rose Acre did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

More than 160 million commercial poultry have died or been culled as a result of this current outbreak of avian influenza, which dates back to 2022. Egg-laying hens have been hit particularly hard, and egg prices have soared as a result: In January, the average price of a dozen large, grade-A eggs was $4.95, a record high according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/07/doj-investigation-egg-price-fixing-bird-flu-00218785

[Karasu]

1. Showboating. You don't get to go after just one particular item for price-gouging. It's been affecting practically every

single industry in this country. But there's been such a preoccupation with this one single thing that they're hoping doing the absolute bare minimum will be enough to impress the rubes.

[unblock]

2. In a normal administration, this would be a reasonable thing to investigate.

*if* they have some evidence of collusion or other legitimate teason to believe prices are above what market should be even after taking into account the massive supply drop due to avian flu.

With this administration and the political obsession over eggs, yeah, they're very likely doing this for show, and looking to punish farms in blue states or farms that didn't donate to Donnie's inaugural fund or whatever.

[NotHardly]

21. Elect a clown, get their circus performers.

What a travesty.

[Walleye]

3. "Avian flu virus, you're under arrest"

I think this is a case of what the market will bear. I don’t think they really believe in capitalism. There are a lot of small egg producers aren’t there?

[Wiz Imp]

11. "There are a lot of small egg producers aren't there?"

No. Not really.

https://www.foodandpower.net/eggs

So few players didn’t always control the egg industry. The number of egg producers in the U.S. declined from 2,500 in 1986 to just 700 in 2002. Today just 59 companies represent 87% of all egg production, and the four largest corporations claimed 28% of egg sales.

These large egg companies have—at least for periods of time in particular regions—leveraged their power to manipulate egg prices. In 2010, Land O’ Lakes settled a $25 million class action lawsuit that charged the company, alongside other large producers and trade groups, fixed prices in the egg industry in the early 2000s. By manipulating the egg supply, the lawsuit alleged, producers forced prices to record highs by 2007. The case marked the first price fixing suit ever brought in the agriculture sector. Texas and New York state attorneys general also accused large egg corporations of price-gouging during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Consolidation in the egg industry also has raised food safety concerns. In 2010, the CDC attributed nearly 2,000 cases of Salmonella poisoning to shell eggs and ordered a recall of nearly 500 million eggs. Yet even though the eggs had been sold under 24 different brands, they all traced back to a single Iowa-based company, DeCoster Egg Farms, owned by Austin “Jack” DeCoster. DeCoster had a decades-long list of wage, labor, animal, and environment abuses on his record before the outbreak. In 2015 DeCoster was sentenced to three months in jail and his company was dissolved.

The egg industry also produces environmental problems similar to other livestock industries that rely on containment of animals. The 7.7 million layer hens in Sioux City, Iowa, for instance, each year produce as much manure as all the sewage produced by all humans in Seattle. Much of this manure finds its way to our rivers, lakes, and bays. In 2009, the largest egg producer in Ohio pled guilty to releasing egg wash water, which contains manure, into a local stream. Studies have shown a high degree of manure pollution in the Chesapeake Bay due to agriculture in the area, including egg and chicken production. For workers in these facilities, long term exposure to poultry dust is linked with chronic respiratory problems.

[OldBaldy1701E]

4. Yeah, until they all go meet with the orange gibbon and give proper obeisance.

Once their checks clear, this investigation will disappear.

[KS Toronado]

5. They'll attack somebody

just so tsf can say "promises made promises kept" in lowering prices.

[C_U_L8R]

6. So free markets aren't so free, eh?

Magats hate regulations... until they benefit them personally. Or their Frankenstein's run out of control. You could make a soufflé out of all the hypocrisy.

[werdna]

7. Sounds like an extortion plot to me.

Give us the big bucks and we'll find no price fixing. Pass on the costs to consumers.

[Scrivener7]

8. While Mump ransacks the government.

[JohnnyRingo]

9. If that's true, then go get them.

They should know better than trying to grift the grifters and they shouldn't be allowed to gouge us.
If it just fizzles out and we hear no more about it, then we know what they're doing.

[Wonder Why]

10. At Sam's Club, I regularly by the 3lb bags of walnuts that I eat with my oatmeal.

The last time, a month or two ago, they were Diamond brand,a well known name. Now they are Sam's brand and the price went from $8+ to $11+.

I guess trump put a tariff on imports from California.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. I think the labeling is supposed to have a "country of origin" on it

Is that where that brand is listed as being from?




https://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/world-top-ten-walnut-producing-countries-map.html

[Magoo48]

12. What is it with these fuckers and their eggs?

[BumRushDaShow]

15. A lot of ancient symbolism

(and congrats on the 6K posts! )

[Magoo48]

16. Thanks, BRDS.

[pazzyanne]

14. IDIOT!!! NT

[William769]

17. They want us to believe that this DOJ is going to bat for the American people?

[DENVERPOPS]

18. In the meantime

we are all waiting for the "Price Fixing" (that has gone on in the oil industry), with Gasoline Prices since 1976.........

LOL Amazing that across America, every brand of gas goes up to the exact same new price, all on the same morning.........Now that is some fancy collusion folks!!!!!!!!!!!

[Martin68]

19. Wait a minute! shouldn't they be investigating Joe Biden? I thought they blamed him for the price of eggs.

[Bengus81]

27. That will next week when this "investigation" gets underway...........

[mdbl]

20. So this is Dump's solution to egg prices? Sic the DOJ on em

Oh wait, everyone was fired.

[ancianita]

22. The DOJ does nothing but "decline to comment." Because it operates like a privatized law firm.

[JoseBalow]

23. Looking for a scapegoat

[Beartracks]

24. I can hear Trump saying, "Eggs! Remember in the campaign? They care about the eggs!!1"

If egg producers really had it in for Trump, they would've collaborated to make eggs cheaper last year after it became a (rather silly) talking point during the campaign.

How much money will be wasted on this Benghazi-like sp-egg-tacle?

===============

[Grins]

25. Yeah; 'cuz THAT'S the problem. NM

[Bengus81]

26. Our egg price dropped $6.25 per dozen. We quit buying the SHIT three weeks ago

I can live without them,why can't others for two weeks? The prices would drop like a rock.

Trump and his band of bozos are going to do NOTHING but put out that statement stating we're going to do something.

[cab67]

28. It's called "supply and demand."

The supply has been disrupted. Demand has not. Hence, prices have risen.

[BumRushDaShow]

29. But the supply disruptions are NOT "universally everywhere"

which was also the case back in 2022 when this all started, and which appeared to be more "regional" in nature. The issue waned after that and then picked up again the past year. Yet you have these "universal" exorbitant prices.

[AntiFascist]

30. Does Trump or his new DOJ even understand supply and demand?

Our Costco store keeps running out of eggs and other stores have limits on the number that can be bought. Lowering prices will just make the shelves emptier.

[Javaman]

31. aka they aren't getting their cut of the gouging. nt

[SusieCreamcheese]

32. Egg-freezing frenzy

Eggs in Boulder County (Colorado) are $9.49 a dozen at King Soopers. As I stood in front of the display case today, a man approached and in a hushed voice (like someone hustling heroin) advised me that "they are selling them for $9.99 for 18 at Sprouts". I found his Aussie accent amusing, so I engaged him for a few minutes, but I didn't think I could go through 18 before they expired so I purchased the lesser amount for the higher price. Now, I find out that eggs can be frozen for 6 months to 1 year. Spray a cupcake tin with olive oil, gently stir two medium eggs together in a measuring cup, trying not to create air bubbles, and pour into the tin. Continue until all eggs are used then freeze overnight. Bang pan against a hard surface to remove the frozen eggs and store in airtight sandwich bags until needed. Unthaw overnight before using. Next time I find a bargain price for eggs, I'll snap them up and head home to an egg-freezing frenzy.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

36. Welcome to DU

[flvegan]

33. "160 million commercial poultry have died or been culled "

Some of us should reconsider how we get our food, maybe put these CAFOs out of business.

[Deminpenn]

34. The biggest cause is the bird flu, but it wouldn't surprise me

if producers were taking advantage of the epidemic and tacking on extra margin, too.

[BlueWavePsych]

35. Turkey adds export tax to eggs.

Turkey, which plans to sell 15,000 tons to the U.S. through July, recently added an export tax to control local prices.

https://financialpost.com/commodities/agriculture/america-learning-difficult-to-import-eggs