From today’s Pnut:
“What’s the best industry to be in in this economy? If your answer to that question was tech, finance, or healthcare, you’d be wrong – it’s egg. Cal-Maine Foods, the largest egg producer in the U.S., saw its profits triple over the first quarter of this year compared to Q1 2024. Zooming out, that’s an 8x profit compared to the same quarter in 2022.
Egg prices spiked to an average cost of $5.90 a dozen in February, thanks in part to an outbreak of the bird flu. That’s double the cost in February 2024, and triple what it cost before the bird flu began spreading in February 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Now, the Trump administration’s Justice Department has opened up an investigation into Cal-Maine and other titans of the egg industry over allegations of price-fixing. “Corporate greed is contributing to sky-high egg prices. While Americans struggle to put food on the table, big ag is raking in billions, using the crisis as cover to reap record high profits,” said one leader at a consumer advocacy group. A recent investigation by the Guardian showed that Cal-Maine didn’t experience any bird flu outbreaks in its flocks in 2023, and sold more eggs that year compared to 2021 and 2022.”