Brazil’s ‘Egg King’ Buys Hillandale Farms

All hail the Egg King. 

On Thursday, Global Eggs — a Luxembourg-based company that operates in Brazil, led by self-annointed “Egg King” Ricardo Faria — announced a $1.1 billion acquisition of Hillandale Farms, one of the largest egg producers in the US. The move comes just as egg prices are starting to come down in the US.

Eggceptional Appetites

It may not be reflected in supermarket prices yet, but eggflation is finally starting to crack. The wholesale cost of a dozen white eggs averaged just $3.27 on March 21, according to the US Department of Agriculture (its next egg report is due later today). That’s down over 20% from the week before, and way down from the $8.16 peak seen at the start of the month.

A big reason for the tumble: Loads and loads of eggs from Brazil. US imports of Brazilian eggs surged 93% in February, according to the Brazilian Animal Protein Association. But Faria told the Financial Times that the Hillandale purchase would’ve happened with or without the avian flu and subsequent Brazilian import boom. Why? Americans love their eggs: 

• Egg consumption per capita in the US reached around 274 last year, according to the industry trade group Farm Action. That’s down from a peak of 292 in 2019, pre-eggflation, but up from 259 in 2013.
• “Eggs were once a product for low-income classes. Over the last 15 years, higher-income classes decided to get slimmer, live better and substitute foods like bread and milk for eggs at breakfast,” Faria told the FT, calling eggs “the fastest-growing consumer good” on supermarket shelves.

What the Cluck: With Hillandale — one of the five largest egg producers in the US — in the portfolio, Faria says Global Eggs will essentially double its egg production per year. That may be a bit of a problem. US antitrust enforcers are already looking at whether America’s top egg producers are engaged in illegal price fixing, according to a recent New York Times report, possibly using the avian flu as a pretext to boost profits. While some 15% of the US egg-laying flock has been killed in the past four months, wholesale egg prices have spiked 255%, according to one metric. Meanwhile, top egg producer Cal-Maine, the only publicly traded company of the group, has reported profits of $219 million in its most recent quarterly report, up an astounding 1,189% year-over-year. We’re guessing Hillandale and Global Eggs’ legal teams feel like they’re walking on regulatory eggshells.