Guardian: Cal-Maine’s profits more than tripled compared with the same quarter last year – and are nearly eight times as high as at the start of the bird flu outbreak in February 2022, according to financial results published on Tuesday. The company, which produces 20% of the eggs eaten in the US, made $1bn in windfall income in the first three-quarters of the financial year – the profits extracted after accounting for production, processing and transport costs.
On Tuesday, Cal-Maine said that its sales almost doubled to $1.42bn in the fiscal third quarter, which ended on 1 March, primarily down to raising egg prices, which has hurt consumers who rely on the once affordable protein source. But the company’s shares then fell by more than 4% after acknowledging that it was being investigated by the justice department’s anti-trust division. Mississippi-based Cal-Maine said it received notice of the investigation into egg price increases last month and that it was cooperating with the investigation.