Jury Rules Egg Producers Conspired to Fix Prices

With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.

In a lawsuit over a decade in the making, an Illinois jury has now found that several of the country’s major egg producers conspired to limit America’s supply of eggs in order to raise prices in a case that began in a federal lawsuit 12 years ago.

Several large food manufacturing companies in the lawsuit filed in 2011 said producers used various means to limit the U.S. domestic supply of eggs to increase the price of eggs and egg products during the 2000s.

“We are incredibly pleased that the jury held egg producers Cal-Maine Foods and Rose Acre Farms accountable alongside United Egg Producers and United States Egg Marketers for conspiring to inflate the price of eggs,” says Brandon Fox, an attorney for the food manufacturers.

Damages will be decided during a trial this week. The jury found the egg suppliers exported eggs to reduce the overall supply in the domestic market and limited the number of chickens available for laying eggs.

Among those receiving damages are General Mills, Inc., the former Kellogg Co., Kraft Heinz Co. and Nestle USA.