Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. is an American fresh

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

producer based in

Ridgeland, Mississippi Ridgeland is a city in Madison County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 24,340 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Jackson metropolitan area. History In 1805, the Choctaw Indian Agency, headed by Silas Dinsmoor, was located ...

. As of 2024, it was the largest egg producer in the United States. Its eggs are sold under several different brand names, including Egg-Land's Best,

Land O'Lakes Land O'Lakes, Inc. is an American member-owned agricultural cooperative based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb of Arden Hills, Minnesota, United States, focusing on the dairy industry. The cooperative has 1,959 direct producer-members, 751 ...

, Farmhouse Eggs, Sunups, Sunny Meadow, and 4-Grain. The company was founded in 1957 by Fred R. Adams, Jr., whose family owns a controlling interest in the company, which is publicly traded on the

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

stock exchange.

Recent history

On May 1, 2012, Cal-Maine announced a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

between the

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

Egg-Land's Best and Land O'Lakes. Cal-Maine was the largest

franchisee Franchising is based on a marketing concept which can be adopted by an organization as a strategy for business expansion. Where implemented, a franchisor licenses some or all of its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its busines ...

of Egg-Land's Best and one of the company's 13 shareholders. As of 2011, 16 percent of Cal-Maine egg sales were Egg-Land's Best. In 2018, an investigation at Lake Wales Farm by the animal rights group Animal Recovery Mission (ARM) indicated that chickens suffered inhumane living conditions and abuse by employees. After further investigation by the Polk County sheriff's department and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), it was found that the farm had followed American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) protocols for euthanizing poultry. No confirmation of abuse was found. According to the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'', in response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, in the spring of 2020, Cal-Maine increased egg prices over 300%, from $1 to $3.44 per dozen. This triggered at least one lawsuit challenging the price jump as unjustified, since there hadn't been an actual supply chain interruption. The lawsuit was dismissed in August 2020. Early in the morning of December17, 2020, a fire destroyed two barns at Cal-Maine's

Dade City, Florida Dade City, officially the City of Dade City, is a city in, and the county seat of Pasco County, Florida, United States. It is located in the Tampa Bay Area, northeast of Tampa, Florida, Tampa and southwest of Orlando, Florida, Orlando. The popu ...

facilities. The fire killed over 240,000

chickens The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

, including 120,000 pullets; the financial loss was estimated to be over $1 million. In 2021, Cal-Maine moved its headquarters from

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city sits on the Pearl River (Mississippi–Louisiana), Pearl River and is locate ...

to Ridgeland, Mississippi. In November 2023, the company was found liable in a lawsuit alleging that it

colluded Collusion is a deceitful agreement or secret cooperation between two or more parties to limit open competition by deceiving, misleading or defrauding others of their legal right. Collusion is not always considered illegal. It can be used to att ...

, along with

Rose Acre Farms Rose Acre Farms is the second largest egg producer in the United States and employs more than 2,000 people. The company is based in Seymour, Indiana, and has facilities in seven states: Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Nort ...

United Egg Producers United Egg Producers (UEP) is a Capper–Volstead agricultural cooperative in the United States which represents the interests of American egg producers. History Egg producers’ concern over the volatility of prices due to overproduction during t ...

, and United States Egg Marketers, to reduce the supply of eggs and increase prices between 2004 and 2008. The plaintiffs in the case, a group of large food manufacturers led by

Kraft Foods Kraft Foods Group, Inc. was an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate (company), conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. on October 1, 2012, and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz on July ...

, originally filed the long-running lawsuit in 2011, but it did not reach trial until October 2023. In March 2024, it was announced Cal-Maine had completed the acquisition of a broiler processing plant, hatchery and feed mill in

Dexter, Missouri Dexter is a city in Stoddard County, Missouri, United States, founded in 1873. The population was 7,927 at the 2020 census. History Dexter was platted in 1873. Mr. Dex, an early settler, gave the community the name of his horse, Dexter. Dexte ...

from the American multinational food processing corporation,

Tyson Foods Tyson Foods, Inc. is an American multinational corporation based in Springdale, Arkansas that operates in the food industry. The company is the world's second-largest processor and marketer of broiler industry, chicken, beef, and pork after JBS ...

for an undisclosed amount. In June 2024, a group of poultry farmers filed a lawsuit against Cal-Maine and Tyson Foods, alleging that the companies had conspired to prevent a competing meatpacking company from purchasing the Dexter facility in violation of Missouri's

antitrust laws Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...

. In April 2025, Cal-Maine announced that it was being investigated by the US Department of Justice Antitrust Division over egg price increases.

Principal subsidiaries

* Cal-Maine Farms, Inc. * Southern Equipment Distributors, Inc. * South Texas Applicators, Inc. * Cal-Maine Partnership, Ltd. * CMF of Kansas, LLCads 2004

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.calmainefoods.com Food manufacturers of the United States Companies based in Jackson, Mississippi Food and drink companies established in 1969 1969 establishments in Mississippi Companies listed on the Nasdaq Egg organizations