Record-breaking egg profits prompt accusation of price gouging

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A farmer-advocacy organization says record-breaking increases in the price of eggs isn’t being caused by inflation or avian flu, as claimed by egg companies, but by price collusion among the nation’s top egg producers.

In a letter sent to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last week, the organization Farm Action accused the country’s dominant egg producers of scheming to raise prices.

“The real culprit behind this 138% hike in the price of a carton of eggs appears to be a collusive scheme among industry leaders to turn inflationary conditions and an avian flu outbreak into an opportunity to extract egregious profits reaching as high as 40%,” read the Farm Action letter to the FTC.

The avian flu outbreak in 2015 was deadlier but did not produce price spikes as high as those seen in 2022. The 2015 outbreak killed about 12% of the egg-laying hens in the U.S. Most of the 50 million birds that died were egg-laying hens and turkeys, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS).

https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/record-breaking-egg-profits-prompt-accusation-of-price-gouging