US farm group calls for probe of high egg prices

Consumers’ wallets have been impacted by skyrocketing inflation within the U.S. this previous yr.

The newest concern is eggs, the worth of which was up 138% in December from a yr prior, to $4.25 a dozen, in keeping with the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A farm group is asking on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to look at the rise for indicators of worth gouging from high egg firms.

Various teams from regulators to farmers and business officers have usually argued in recent times concerning the energy of high agriculture corporations to set prices and drive up what customers pay for groceries.

‘SKY-HIGH’ EGG PRICES: A HISTORICAL LOOK AT EGG COSTS SINCE 1980

A consumer checks eggs earlier than he purchases at a grocery retailer in Glenview, Illinois. Border officers are seeing extra seizures of eggs amid hovering prices and inflation.  (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh / AP Newsroom)

The nation’s antitrust regulator ought to look at record-high income on the high egg firm, stated Farm Action on Thursday in a letter to FTC chair Lina Khan.

That egg producer is Cal-Maine Foods, which controls 20% of the retail egg market.

Quarterly sales at Cal-Maine have been up 110% and gross income up greater than 600% over the identical quarter within the prior fiscal yr, in keeping with a regulatory submitting.

The firm pointed to decreased egg provide nationwide as a result of avian flu driving up prices as a motive for its report gross sales.

Half-empty cabinets of eggs are seen at a grocery store on Jan. 8, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.  (I RYU/VCG through Getty Images / Getty Images)

EGG PRICES RISE MORE THAN 64% IN SOME STATES

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) additionally pointed to a report outbreak of avian flu as a motive for the high prices.

Nearly 58 million chickens and turkeys have been killed by avian flu or to regulate the unfold of the virus for the reason that starting of 2022, largely in March and April, in keeping with the USDA. 

U.S. egg manufacturing was about 5% decrease in October in comparison with final yr, and egg inventories have been down 29% in December in comparison with the start of the yr, a major drop, however one that will not clarify record-high prices, stated Basel Musharbash, an lawyer with Farm Action.

Cartons of eggs sit in a freezer at a grocery store on Jan. 8, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (I RYU/VCG through Getty Images / Getty Images)

US BORDER AUTHORITIES REPORT INCREASE IN EGG SMUGGLING 

“We need the FTC to dig in and see if customers are being worth gouged,” Musharbash stated.

In a press release to Reuters, Cal-Maine stated that increased manufacturing prices are additionally a consider increased prices.

The American Egg Board, an egg advertising group, stated in a press release that egg prices replicate a spread of components and that wholesale egg prices are starting to fall.

FOX Business has reached out to the FTC for remark.