What Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. told the SEC could break it.

Feed is the primary cost component of egg production, representing 53.4% of Cal-Maine's fiscal 2025 farm production costs (53%–63% over the last five years). The key ingredients are corn and, to a lesser extent, soybean meal, whose prices Cal-Maine does not control — they are driven by weather, global/US supply-demand, transportation and storage costs, speculators, agricultural/energy/trade policy, and geopolitical instability (e.g., the war in Ukraine). Spikes in grain prices directly compress egg-production margins.

“Feed is a primary cost component in the production of shell eggs and represented 53.4% of our fiscal 2025 farm production costs.”

Cal-Maine is exposed to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), the biological supply-shock driving the U.S. egg shortage and price spikes. The ongoing HPAI outbreak affecting poultry in the U.S., Canada and other countries was first detected in U.S. commercial flocks in November 2023 and first impacted Cal-Maine's own flocks in December 2023. Flock depopulations from HPAI reduce layable hen counts and egg supply, disrupt production at affected sites, and drive volatile egg prices.

“the outbreak of HPAI affecting poultry in the U.S., Canada and other countries that was first detected in commercial flocks in the U.S. in November 2023 and that first impacted our flocks in December 2023.”

In March 2025 Cal-Maine received a civil investigative demand tied to a widely publicized U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division investigation into the causes of nationwide egg-price increases. As the largest U.S. egg producer it is squarely within the scope of regulatory scrutiny over egg pricing during the shortage; an adverse outcome could result in penalties, settlements or operating constraints, and the investigation itself increases attention and reputational risk.

“In March 2025, we received a civil investigative demand in connection with a widely publicized investigation by the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) into the causes behind nationwide increases in egg prices.”