Egg Producers Settle Price-Fixing Case With 53 Million Eggs for Food Banks

Cal-Maine, Versova, and Hickman's will donate 53 million eggs and pay $3.3 million to food banks to settle state and DOJ claims they rigged the Urner Barry egg price index from 2022 to 2025.

Egg Producers Settle Price-Fixing Case With 53 Million Eggs for Food Banks Cal-Maine, Versova, and Hickman's will donate 53 million eggs and pay $3.3 million to food banks to settle state and DOJ claims they rigged the Urner Barry egg price index from 2022 to 2025. Aaron Rafferty June 30, 2026 Key Takeaways Cal-Maine Foods, Versova/Centrum, and Hickman's Egg Ranch will donate 53 million eggs and pay $3.3 million to food banks to settle claims they coordinated to inflate egg prices. A coalition of 16 state attorneys general and the U.S. Department of Justice found the producers manipulated the Urner Barry price index from June 2022 to March 2025. The eggs go to food banks at the companies' expense as demand for fresh protein keeps climbing at pantries nationwide. Three of the country's largest egg producers have agreed to donate 53 million eggs and pay $3.3 million to food banks to settle allegations that they coordinated for years to push up the price of eggs, attorneys general announced on June 30. The deal resolves a bipartisan investigation by 16 states and the U.S. Department of Justice into Cal-Maine Foods, Versova/Centrum, and Hickman's Egg Ranch. Investigators found that from roughly June 2022 to March 2025 the companies secretly coordinated their bids to move the daily egg quotes published by Urner Barry, a benchmark used across egg supply contracts. In one December 2022 email cited by investigators, a Hickman's executive urged competitors to submit strong bids early and often to push the quotes higher. What the companies agreed to Under the settlement, the three producers must stop coordinating, appoint antitrust compliance officers, and cooperate with state and federal oversight. The 53 million donated eggs will be supplied at the compa