A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Egg prices last year were a major pain point for consumers and also the Trump administration. Now the Department of Justice is charging three major egg suppliers with price-fixing and keeping prices inflated. Here to break down what it means is our colleague, Wailin Wong, from The Indicator. So, I mean, who doesn't remember eggpocalypse (ph)? I mean, who is getting the...
WAILIN WONG, BYLINE: We lived it.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, we did. We absolutely did. So who's getting most of the blame for high egg prices last year?
WONG: Well, the irrefutable culprit was bird flu. This infection meant that we lost tens of millions of egg-laying hens in the country. But there was a slightly more, I would say, kind of controversial culprit, one that was hotly debated among, you know, consumer advocate groups and economists, and that is greedflation - or corporate greed - the idea that companies were charging prices that were beyond what would be reasonable to cover their own rising costs.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. And since the Justice Department can't charge bird flu with any crimes...
WONG: (Laughter).
MARTÍNEZ: ...What is the government alleging?
WONG: So the Department of Justice and 17 states allege that three major egg producers - their names are Cal-Maine, Hickman's and Versova - illegally coordinated to inflate egg prices. And the government says these companies allegedly did this by submitting information to this industry publication that publishes price quotations. And these price quotations then influence what restaurants and grocery stores and other customers pay for eggs. And so the government is saying that these three companies illegally coordinated to manipulate these price quotations and make the prices of eggs higher.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. And what are the companies saying in response?
WONG: Well, they have not admitted any wrongdoing as part of this proposed settlement. Cal-Maine released a statement saying it actually denies any wrongdoing.
MARTÍNEZ: So if these proposed settlements do wind up getting final court approval, I mean, what do the companies have to do?
WONG: Well, the companies have to put in a bunch of antitrust compliance measures. So these are programs within their companies where they have to report out and making sure they're doing everything above board. And then they also have to pay a combined $3.3 million to the states involved. And this is my favorite part, they have to donate over 53 million eggs to food pantries and related nonprofits in those states. And if you look at the language of the settlements, it actually says the eggs have to be non-expired, non-spoiled, Grade A eggs. So no rotten eggs allowed.
MARTÍNEZ: Wow. So they will have to put most of their eggs in one basket, right?
WONG: One basket that's going to be split up among 17 states.
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter) OK.
WONG: That's right. Only good eggs.
MARTÍNEZ: So, Wailin, I always think that there's a couple of products out there that are really good indicators, No. 1, of how people feel the government is doing and maybe how people feel the economy is working for them. Gasoline is one, but also eggs. So what do you think we've all learned about how eggs really impacts the way people feel about how far their buck stretches?
WONG: Eggs, because they are this item that is a common item, it's a staple. It's the foundation of so many meals, so many recipes. It's something that consumers are highly aware of what the price of that thing is week to week, month by month. And so this really goes into informing how people feel about the economy and how far they feel like their budget can stretch.
MARTÍNEZ: That's Wailin Wong with The Indicator from Planet Money. Wailin, thanks a lot.
WONG: Thank you.
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