As average egg prices hit record highs of nearly $5/dozen and a yearslong, worsening bird flu outbreak continues unfettered in all fifty U.S. states, the consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch has released a new report detailing how the U.S.’s largest egg producer has exploited this crisis for profit.

In the report — “The Economic Cost of Food Monopolies: The Rotten Egg Oligarchy” — Food & Water Watch analyzes data from the first year of the current bird flu outbreak to detail how today’s soaring consumer prices are built on a foundation of corporate price-gouging.

Key findings include:

• National egg prices spiked while production barely dipped: Average retail prices for eggs in the U.S. jumped 150% from January 2022 to January 2023, reaching $4.82 per dozen, even as monthly egg production never fell more than 7% from the 5-year average.
• National price spikes distorted regional markets: Even regions with stable and increasing egg supply experienced national price spikes. The U.S. Southeast, for example, saw increased egg production and remained bird flu free until January 2025, yet customers experienced egg price spikes mirroring national trends.
• High prices were sticky: Egg prices were already rising before the current outbreak hit U.S. commercial poultry flocks in February 2022, and have never returned to pre-outbreak levels.
• Corporations rode high prices to record profits: The nation’s largest egg corporation, Cal-Maine, which produces 1 in 5 eggs eaten in the U.S., raised prices during the early bird flu outbreak and raked in $1 billion in windfall profits in its FY 2023, while not experiencing a single flock outbreak of its own that year.
• Corporate factory farms fuel the spread of bird flu: The vast majority — 75% — of U.S. egg-laying hens are raised on just 347 factory farms, with an average of nearly 850,000 animals crammed together in tight quarters, providing ideal breeding grounds for infectious diseases like bird flu. 99% of commercial laying hens impacted by bird flu to date lived on factory farms.

Food & Water Watch Research Director Amanda Starbuck issued the following statement:

“While egg prices spiral out of reach, making eggs a luxury item, Big Ag is profiting hand over fist. But make no mistake — today’s high prices are built on a foundation of corporate price-gouging. Our research shows how corporations use the worsening bird flu crisis to jack up egg prices, even as their own factory farms fuel the spread of disease.

“If President Trump has any interest in fulfilling his campaign pledge to lower food prices, he must begin by taking on the food monopolies exploiting pandemic threat for profit.”

The report is the latest installment in a series examining the Economic Cost of Food Monopolies, following research on the retail grocery, pork, and dairy industries.