Major egg corporations may be using avian flu as a ruse to hike up prices, generating record profits while hurting American consumers, new research suggests.
The cost of a dozen large eggs hit almost $5 in January – a record high in the US and more than two and a half times the average price three years ago before the avian flu outbreak. This signifies a 157% inflation rate for eggs – a previously go-to affordable protein source for many American families.
And while avian flu has been a principal driver of rising consumer egg prices, the highly concentrated egg market may also be contributing to the soaring consumer prices – and the spread of the virus, according to new analysis by Food and Water Watch (FWW) shared exclusively with the Guardian.
“Bird flu does not fully explain the sticker shock consumers experience in the egg aisle … corporate consolidation is a key culprit behind egg price spikes,” said Amanda Starbuck, lead author of the FWW report The Economic Cost of Food Monopolies: The Rotten Egg Oligarchy.
“Powerful corporations that control every step of the supply chain – from breeding hens to hatching eggs to processing and distributing eggs – are making windfall profits off this crisis, raising their prices above and beyond what is necessary to cover any rising costs.”
The analysis found that in some regions, prices were going up even before the new strain of the deadly H5N1 virus had affected poultry flocks and reduced egg production.
The south-east, for instance, remained free of bird flu in its table egg flocks until January 2025. In fact, egg production rose in 2022 and 2023 compared with 2021 levels. Yet retail egg prices in the region increased alongside national spikes, according to FWW analysis of government data.
Even as egg production recovered in 2023, prices did not come down. Between April and December 2023, national retail inventories of eggs each month exceeded the five-year average by as much as almost 13%. Yet the average egg price for consumers was higher than the five-year average each month.
In one case, the country’s largest egg producer, Cal-Maine, boasted a sevenfold increase in gross profits in fiscal year 2023 compared with 2021, after increasing prices above rising costs – and despite its flocks not being affected by avian flu during that period.
Cal-Maine, which produces one in every five eggs eaten in the US, issued shareholder dividends totaling $250m in fiscal year 2023 – 40 times more than the previous fiscal year. The Mississippi-based company sold 7% more eggs in 2024 compared with 2021 and tripled its profits over the same period, according to company filings.
A separate analysis also found that avian flu alone cannot explain consumer prices, which rose by 61% over the past six months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The direct costs related to losing hen flocks account for a 12-24% increase in retail prices, according to a study by the University of Arkansas looking at the impact of the outbreak in 2022-23. (Additional factors related to avian flu – such as industry adjustments and policy changes – that have probably evolved since the study may also contribute to recent price increases.)
“The working class is struggling to afford groceries while companies like Cal-Maine are raking in huge profits and rewarding their shareholders,” said the Democratic congressman Ro Khanna. “The Trump administration has the power to lower grocery bills, but instead they are imposing blanket tariffs on allies, firing federal workers who are trying to prevent the bird flu, and putting billionaires over ordinary Americans.”
Cal-Maine did not respond to requests for comment on the findings.
Nationwide, 166 million poultry have been culled since the virus began spreading through commercial flocks in early 2022. There were 9% fewer egg-laying hens in January 2025 compared with three years earlier, according to US Department of Agriculture (USDA) figures.
The vast majority of avian flu outbreaks have been on factory farms where hundreds of thousands or sometimes millions of egg-laying hens are caged in close proximity, creating ideal conditions for the rapid spread of infectious diseases.
In February, an outbreak was detected in a flock of almost 3.1 million egg-laying hens in Darke county, Ohio, according to USDA data. If one hen is infected, federal regulations call for the entire flock at the affected site to be killed – due to the risks posed by the deadly and highly contagious virus to other poultry, animals and humans, further disrupting supply and increasing costs.
“These same companies exacerbate the bird flu outbreak by raising their birds on factory farms, crammed together in hundreds of thousands or millions, creating the perfect breeding ground for disease,” said Starbuck.
So far 70 human cases have been confirmed in the US. One person has died and another three have required hospital treatment. Almost 1,000 cattle herds have been infected, and the virus has been detected in poultry in almost every single US territory.
More than 54 million birds have been affected in the past three-months.
The egg production industry – like the retailer sector that producers mostly sell to – is highly concentrated. This gives a handful of big corporations the opportunity to influence prices outside the impact of shocks like avian flu and the Covid-19 pandemic on supply and demand.
The top five egg companies own almost half (46%) of all egg-laying commercial hens. Headquartered in Mississippi, Cal-Maine is the only publicly traded US egg producer, and has 75% more hens than the next largest company.
Cal-Maine did not experience any bird flu outbreaks in its flocks in its 2023 fiscal year – and actually sold more eggs in 2023 than in the previous two years. Yet the company still sold conventional eggs at inflated prices – 2.8 times higher compared with 2021, pocketing almost $1 more a dozen even after taking into account expenses such as feed and energy.
This helped the company extract just over $1bn in “windfall profits” after accounting for production, processing and transport costs.
In its financial documents, Cal-Maine suggests egg prices are outside the company’s control: “We do not sell eggs directly to consumers or set the prices at which eggs are sold to consumers.”
But many of its customers rely on Cal-Maine for the majority of their egg needs, according to company filings, so the price it sells its eggs factors into grocery store prices.
Buyers appear to rely heavily on a single industry data analytics firm, Urner Barry, which crunches data from companies across the supply chain to create its daily price benchmark for eggs. In turn, producers use the benchmarks for setting their egg prices for sale to retailers – though they are not required to.
In other words, Urner Barry’s indices work like a feedback loop that can artificially drive up prices and harm consumers, according to previous lawsuits.
According to the industry commentator Simon Shane, “the established relationship between producers and chain buyers [major retailers] based on a single commercial price discovery system [the Urner Barry index] constitutes an impediment to a free market”.
An Urner Barry spokesperson said there was no single commercial price discovery system or industry-wide pricing system in the egg industry. “We are one source of information for buyers and sellers, promoting transparency in the market by collating accurate historical transaction data. Buyers and sellers are always free to transact at different prices. Different contracts are agreed between different buyers and sellers using different formulas.”
Cal-Maine’s soaring profits do not reflect the entire industry. There are no publicly accessible financial records for other major producers.
Last month, a farmer-led advocacy organization urged federal antitrust agencies to look into whether potential collusion could be exacerbating price hikes. Farm Action also called on the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether major egg producers have been slower to replace lost hen flocks compared with the 2014-15 avian flu outbreak, in order to suppress supplies and keep prices high.
Almost 631m eggs were produced in January 2025 – nearly 10% fewer than January 2022, as flock sizes continue to drop. The USDA tracks pullets – the chicks hatched to replace egg-laying hens – which have been below the five-year average most months since the outbreak began in February 2022.
“Based on publicly available data, we’ve observed that egg price increases far exceed what would be expected based on hen losses and the industry has not increased the number of laying hens as expected during a period of high prices. This strongly suggests potential antitrust violations,” said Angela Huffman, chief executive of Farm Action. “The FTC and DoJ have the authority to investigate beyond what is publicly available … we urge them to exercise this authority.”
While consumers have been harmed by rising prices, there is no evidence of collusion, according to Bruce Babcock, professor of public policy and an expert on agriculture economics at the University of California, Riverside. “The fact that other very large egg producers had to euthanize tens of millions of birds meant that Cal-Main benefits because the price of eggs went up and Cal-Maine can get a windfall profit … That’s how markets work.”
In 2024, 94% of Americans said they were very or somewhat concerned about the cost of food and consumer goods, according to Pew Research Centre. In January 2025, households across the country were again facing surging egg prices – even in areas where inventories remained stable, FWW found.
In a letter sent to the White House, Khanna was among more than 20 Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, who urged Trump to make good on his campaign promise to bring down grocery prices and investigate possible price gouging by corporations that are raking in record profits.
“Egg producers and grocery stores may leverage the current avian flu outbreak as an opportunity to further constrain supply or hike up egg prices to increase profits,” the lawmakers wrote. “The egg company [Cal-Maine] and its shareholders are making higher profits while Americans shell out more for grocery staples.”
On Thursday, the agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, outlined the Trump administration’s five-point strategy to lower egg prices. This includes investing $1bn in curbing avian flu – which she said would be partly funded by working with Elon Musk’s team “to cut hundreds of millions of dollars of wasteful spending”.
Federal employee layoffs and public health blackouts measures have already disrupted tracking, testing and messaging for avian flu.
The agriculture secretary also signaled plans to move away from culling entire flocks, the depopulation measure currently mandated, in favor of new vaccines and biosecurity measures like improved protective gear and procedures. The administration is considering temporarily allowing egg exports and claimed California legislation that requires minimum space for egg-laying hens, is driving up production costs, Rollins added.
