Dive Brief:
- Cal-Maine Foods, the largest producer of eggs in the U.S., said strong consumer demand and supply constraints from the ongoing bird flu outbreak helped push up quarterly net sales by 82% over the previous year.
- Sales of conventional and specialty eggs both increased in the second quarter of fiscal year 2025, according to Cal-Maine. Higher prices and lower feed costs also raised profits, the company said.
- Egg prices continue to break records with the ongoing spread of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. Commercial producers have reported more deadly outbreaks that have forced them to cull flocks to contain the spread.
Dive Insight:
Cal-Maine said that it is seeing demand continuing to outpace available supply, and the company has had to buy from outside suppliers and rely more on capacity from recent acquisitions to meet customer needs.
“Without question, we have recently faced significant challenges within our Company and the entire egg industry due to the ongoing outbreaks of HPAI,” Cal-Maine President and CEO Sherman Miller said in a statement. “We remain focused on optimizing the aspects of our business that we can control and continue to extend our leadership role in supporting the nation’s food supply.”
Bird flu outbreaks and facility fires in 2024 resulted in the loss of 39.9 million commercial table egg layers in 12 states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Around 43% of losses occurred during the last two months of 2024, with one-third occurring in the peak demand period of December.
Unlike previous years, bird flu has begun to affect cage-free and specialty eggs, resulting in significant price increases in markets like California, which has restrictions on confining egg-laying hens.
Egg prices remain at all-time highs in markets across the U.S. Prices for large, white shell eggs ranged from $5.75 per dozen in the Midwest to $8.97 in California.
Nonetheless, supply issues have prompted consumers to continue to stock up — further limiting stock on grocery store shelves. Many grocery retailers have taken steps to curtail excess consumer purchasing, the USDA reported, with some placing restrictions on how many cartons can be purchased per shopping trip.
Cal-Maine has been on an acquisition spree last year as it looks to expand production of cage-free eggs and grow its presence in the value-added space. The company has approximately $60 million in new capital projects aimed at growing its supply of cage-free eggs. It is also expanding its processing capacity for shelled and liquid eggs.
“We were fortunate to have the ability to leverage our significant scale and benefit from recent acquisitions, which have helped support our production capacity in this challenging supply environment,” Sherman said in a statement. “As demand continues to outpace supply, we remain focused on making additional strategic investments to expand our operations.”