4 ms·

According to one lawsuit, Cal-Maine wasn't impacted at all by the avian flu, they just jacked prices up 270% anyway while using the avian flu as an excuse. > M

According to one lawsuit, Cal-Maine wasn't impacted at all by the avian flu, they just jacked prices up 270% anyway while using the avian flu as an excuse. > Meanwhile, in context and during the class period, egg producers like Cal-Maine increased egg prices by as much as 270% in 2023 despite having zero Avian Flu outbreaks in their egg laying hen layers on Cal-Maine affiliated farms (https://www.classaction.org/news/antitrust-lawsuit-says-producers-used-shared-platform-to-conspire-to-fix-egg-prices-using-avian-flu-as-pretext https://www.classaction.org/news/antitrust-lawsuit-says-prod...)

decimalenough 3mo ago
On its face, this is a normal market response: if demand is unchanged and overall supply goes down, prices go up. The criminal conspiracy part here was manipulating the index prices in tandem so that everybody raised prices in lockstep.
- autoexec 3mo ago
  > if demand is unchanged and overall supply goes down, prices go up. How much did supply go down considering that Cal-Maine Foods, Inc is (or at least was) the single largest supplier of eggs in the country? Ultimately their profits increased 718% (https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/business/egg-profits-cal-maine/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/business/egg-profits-cal-main...) which seems unlikely to be explained away by reduced supply. They were price gouging and fixing prices with the other large suppliers to prevent consumers from just switching to those brands while small egg producers may have had issues with avian flu keeping their fairly priced products off the shelves.
  - decimalenough 3mo ago
    I'm agreeing with you here? All I'm saying is that one company raising prices and raking in profits by itself is not a crime. The key parts here are conspiring with other producers to make sure everybody does the same, and manipulating the index to make it look legit.
  - kilotaras 3mo ago
    Eggs demand is rather inelastic[0]: price has to go up by a lot for demand to go down. Per your link Cal-Maine Food doubled the revenue while selling roughly the same amount of eggs. Expenditure wouldn't double and so you would expect a drastic increase in profit. > small egg producers may have had issues with avian flu keeping their fairly priced products off the shelves. They didn't had the product though! This is main part of the reason price went up in 2022. It's either that or no eggs on the shelves. [0]https://agdatanews.substack.com/p/americans-really-like-eggs https://agdatanews.substack.com/p/americans-really-like-eggs
thephyber 3mo ago
“As an excuse” is a weird way of saying “responding to national supply and demand”. 100% of the suppliers who didn’t have to cull all of their chickens raised their prices.
- conorcleary 3mo ago
  Adam Smith is upset!
- deleted 3mo ago
  [deleted]

decimalenough 3mo ago

On its face, this is a normal market response: if demand is unchanged and overall supply goes down, prices go up. The criminal conspiracy part here was manipulating the index prices in tandem so that everybody raised prices in lockstep.

autoexec 3mo ago
> if demand is unchanged and overall supply goes down, prices go up. How much did supply go down considering that Cal-Maine Foods, Inc is (or at least was) the single largest supplier of eggs in the country? Ultimately their profits increased 718% (https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/business/egg-profits-cal-maine/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/business/egg-profits-cal-main...) which seems unlikely to be explained away by reduced supply. They were price gouging and fixing prices with the other large suppliers to prevent consumers from just switching to those brands while small egg producers may have had issues with avian flu keeping their fairly priced products off the shelves.
- decimalenough 3mo ago
  I'm agreeing with you here? All I'm saying is that one company raising prices and raking in profits by itself is not a crime. The key parts here are conspiring with other producers to make sure everybody does the same, and manipulating the index to make it look legit.
- kilotaras 3mo ago
  Eggs demand is rather inelastic[0]: price has to go up by a lot for demand to go down. Per your link Cal-Maine Food doubled the revenue while selling roughly the same amount of eggs. Expenditure wouldn't double and so you would expect a drastic increase in profit. > small egg producers may have had issues with avian flu keeping their fairly priced products off the shelves. They didn't had the product though! This is main part of the reason price went up in 2022. It's either that or no eggs on the shelves. [0]https://agdatanews.substack.com/p/americans-really-like-eggs https://agdatanews.substack.com/p/americans-really-like-eggs

thephyber 3mo ago

“As an excuse” is a weird way of saying “responding to national supply and demand”. 100% of the suppliers who didn’t have to cull all of their chickens raised their prices.

conorcleary 3mo ago
Adam Smith is upset!
deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]