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Three big US egg producers agreed to settle accusations by US and state authorities that they colluded to manipulate a widely used industry benchmark to drive up the price of eggs.
The Department of Justice and attorneys-general from 17 states alleged Cal-Maine Foods, Versova and Hickman’s Egg Ranch worked together between June 2022 and March 2025 to inflate daily price quotations published by Urner Barry, a benchmark provider whose prices are widely used in contracts with supermarkets, restaurants and food-service groups.
The three companies agreed to donate more than 50mn eggs and pay $3.3mn to settle the allegations. The proposed settlement, filed in federal court in Iowa and still subject to court approval, would require the groups to stop communicating with competitors about bidding strategies, prices and transactions intended to affect benchmark publications. They must also appoint antitrust compliance officers, adopt monitoring programmes and report potential breaches to regulators.
The case lands in one of the most politically charged corners of the US food market. Eggs became a symbol of the country’s cost-of-living squeeze after prices surged during successive waves of bird flu, which forced producers to cull millions of laying hens and left supermarkets, restaurants and food manufacturers scrambling for supply.
Prices for large grade A eggs climbed above $8.50 a dozen in February 2025, according to commodity price information service Expana, before falling back to about $2.19 in May this year.
But antitrust enforcers alleged the supply disruption was not the only factor. Wholesale egg prices dropped sharply after news of the DoJ probe broke in March, raising questions over whether producers had kept prices artificially high during the bird flu crisis.
According to the complaint, the companies used bids on the Egg Clearinghouse exchange, as well as off-exchange trades reported to Urner Barry, to create the appearance of stronger demand to push benchmark prices higher.
In one example cited by prosecutors, Hickman’s then chief executive Glenn Hickman emailed senior executives at Cal-Maine and Versova in December 2022 urging them to post “strong bids, early and often” before Urner Barry market reporters began work.
The complaint alleges the three companies then submitted dozens of bids, most at premium prices, while all other market participants combined submitted fewer than six bids that morning. Urner Barry increased its quotations later that day.
The complaint also quotes the chief executive of an unnamed egg co-operative telling the group that “as a group we need to bid like they vote in Chicago, early and often”.
The DoJ said the benchmark was commercially significant because billions of eggs are sold each year under contracts tied to Urner Barry quotations, allowing any artificial increase to feed through to supermarkets, restaurants and consumers.
The settlement requires the companies to donate 53mn eggs to food banks and non-profit organisations across participating states, including about 4.9mn eggs for groups serving New Yorkers. The companies will also pay a combined $3.3mn to the states.
Cal-Maine, the largest US egg producer, denied wrongdoing and said the agreement did not include fines or penalties. It said it would donate 30mn eggs and pay $1.5mn to resolve the claims brought by the states.
“Temporary supply shocks, including in connection with multiple outbreaks of avian influenza, the Covid-19 pandemic, weather and other market dynamics — compounded by high inflation at the time — caused egg prices to surge periodically over the past five years,” said Sherman Miller, Cal-Maine’s chief executive.
“Our decision to accept this settlement simply reflects our firm intention to put this matter behind us and focus on our business,” said Versova, adding that it had agreed to donate 20mn eggs over the course of three years and a one-time monetary payment of $800,000, both of which will be divided between the 17 states.
A spokesperson for JBS Foods USA, which bought Hickman’s last year, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Additional reporting by Haley Zimmerman
