Latest news with #CalMaine
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Why Did Cal-Maine Foods Stock Drop Today?
Cal-Maine stock benefited from a recent salmonella scare... for eggs from a rival producer. Two weeks later, worries over an egg deficit may be receding. 10 stocks we like better than Cal-Maine Foods › Shares of Cal-Maine Foods (NASDAQ: CALM), America's biggest producer of chicken eggs, closed down 2.5% on Wednesday, a day in which there seemed no obvious news to serve as a catalyst for the decline. To find the catalyst, you may have to flip back a few days on your calendar. Specifically, flip back to June 6, when the August Egg Company announced a voluntary recall of its brown cage-free and organic brown eggs on worries of salmonella contamination. That recall affected multiple brands of eggs wholesaled by August to retailers, across nine states -- and removed 20.4 million eggs from the market, sparking worries of rising egg prices. With August out of the market, companies not recalling their eggs -- companies like Cal-Maine Foods -- actually stood to benefit from the salmonella scare. From recall day through yesterday, Cal-Maine's stock price had risen nearly 4%. As worries over a supply deficit recede, however, Cal-Maine may have begun giving back its gains. Current shareholders may not be thrilled with today's price decline, but new investors should be -- because it makes the stock even cheaper than it already was. Valued on trailing-12-month profits, Cal-Maine stock costs a lowly 5 times earnings. And granted, last year's expensive eggs may become cheaper in the future, hurting profits. But based on analyst forecasts for more than $8 a share in earnings next year, Cal-Maine stock remains attractively priced at 12 times forward earnings. Scramble in a generous 6.6% dividend yield, and Cal-Maine stock looks even more attractive. Unless and until you see eggs at your supermarket getting significantly cheaper, now could be a good time to buy Cal-Maine stock. Before you buy stock in Cal-Maine Foods, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Cal-Maine Foods wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $689,813!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $906,556!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 809% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 175% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 23, 2025 Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Cal-Maine Foods. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why Did Cal-Maine Foods Stock Drop Today? was originally published by The Motley Fool
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
As Egg Prices Peaked, 280,000 Vanished Off A Freight Truck—How?
Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images I'm dedicating the newsletter this week to one of the best stories I've read in a long time. Check out the Washington Post investigations team's deep dive on 'The Great Egg Heist'—or what happened when 280,000 brown eggs from America's top producer Cal-Maine were stolen off a freight truck. A ransom note followed. I won't spoil this twisting tale for you, but I'll point out that the story also explains how Cal-Maine became a target while profiting from the sudden spike in the price of eggs that turned the refrigerator staple into one of the hottest luxury items in grocery stores nationwide. In the days leading up to the theft, the U.S. Department of Justice even began investigating Cal-Maine on farmers' allegations of price-gouging. As the company blamed price hikes on the impact of avian flu outbreaks decreasing overall supply, the Washington Post points out that in 2022, Cal-Maine didn't lose a single bird to avian flu and still reported quarterly profits that December that were 169 times higher than the year prior. I'm still waiting for Cal-Maine to return my many requests for an interview with the chairman and son-in-law of the company's founder, or the founder's four daughters. They had controlled the publicly traded company through a majority stake for years, but sold a significant amount of shares in April. Their entire share sale plan is estimated to have a value of about $500 million. I hope you are enjoying all summer has to offer, and, if like millions of Americans, you're in the throes of a heatwave, stay cool and hydrate! — Chloe Sorvino This is Forbes' Fresh Take newsletter , which every Wednesday brings you the latest on the big ideas changing the future of food. Want to get it in your inbox every week? Sign up here . Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images From the Washington Post : 280,000 eggs disappeared from America's top producer. Then came a ransom note. The Feed A gate marks a closed road on land managed by the Bureau of Land Management outside of Moab, Utah. James Roh for The Washington Post via Getty Images Public Land Grab: After widespread bipartisan opposition to the federal government selling some 250 million acres of public land in the West to raise funds as part of the Trump Administration's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, it's looking like the conservationists could win. On Monday, the Senate's Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled out the sales, according to Politico's E&E News. But the fight is not over: Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) has vowed to alter his plan. Cofounder Jennifer Garner attends a Once Upon A Farm launch event in October Once Upon A Farm IPO Watch: Once Upon A Farm, the organic baby food brand cofounded by Jennifer Garner and former Annie's CEO John Foraker, has confidentially filed to go public, according to a report in Reuters. The Goldman Sachs- and JPMorgan-backed transaction could value the business at around $1 billion and is a good sign for markets that have faced uncertainty and a tepid supply of new listings. Chickens stand in a henhouse at Sunrise Farms in February 2025 in Petaluma, The Next Pandemic: I also urge you to read a call to action on avian flu and the risks it poses to human health from Danielle Nierenberg, cofounder of Food Tank and a Forbes contributor. 'The time to prevent and contain this virus is right now,' writes Nierenberg. 'There's a very real possibility that avian flu could pose a greater threat in the future, and we can't be caught unprepared. The correct course of action involves vaccination, investments in public health, and global collaboration—all of which appear to be under threat given recent U.S. policy developments.' Ultimately, she declares: 'As Covid-19 made abundantly clear, viruses don't stop at national borders. Keeping the public healthy and preparing for pandemic risks simply must be more important than politicking. And when we're heading in the wrong direction, there is a moral obligation to sound the alarm—and to illuminate a better path forward.' Field Notes Chloe Sorvino I've been spending some time on Cape Cod, which means I had to stop at The Seafood Shanty in Bournedale, Massachusetts right before the bridge. I love this 30-year-plus institution's fried scallops and homemade onion rings, and, I have to say, I personally think the lobster roll might be the best—and the best value—of anywhere around the Cape. Pro tip: This old-school seafood shack piles on the lobster so high that you can get two lobster rolls out of their $32.95 meal (with fries!), just order yourself an extra roll. Thanks for reading the 148th edition of Forbes Fresh Take! Let me know what you think. Subscribe to Forbes Fresh Take here .
Globe and Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
CALM's Strategic Cage-Free Expansion Sets It for Solid Market Gains
Cal-Maine Foods CALM is moving ahead with its $60 million expansion plan, aimed at expanding capacity for 1.1 million cage-free layer hens and 250,000 pullets by end of 2025. This is part of CALM's multi-year strategy to capitalize on shifting consumer preference for cage-free eggs. With ten U.S. states enforcing cage-free egg production by 2030, around 73% of U.S non-organic laying hens will need to be transitioned to cage-free systems to meet demand. To address this evolving market, Cal-Maine has been strategically scaling its cage-free operations through a combination of organic investments and acquisitions. The company has been upgrading existing facilities and converting conventional housing to cage-free environments. Cal-Maine's inorganic growth efforts are equally significant. In 2022, it acquired the remaining 50% interest in Red River Valley Egg Farm, adding around 1.7 mm cage free layers. The acquisition of Fassio Egg Farms, Inc in September 2023 increased capacity by 1.2 million laying hens, primarily cage-free. The acquisition of ISE America, Inc. in late 2024 added an additional 1 million cage-free laying hens. Backed by its efforts, cage-free eggs now account for a larger share of CALM's product mix and represented approximately 29.5% of its total net shell egg sales in fiscal year 2024. While cage-free egg production is more expensive than for conventional eggs, it supports premium pricing, offering a long-term growth driver for Cal-Maine. Post Holdings Steps Up Cage-Free Investment Post Holdings, Inc. POST is also incurring additional operating and capital costs to procure cage-free eggs, modify existing layer hen facilities and construct new cage-free layer hen housing and comply with other farm animal initiatives. Post Holdings' investment plan for 2025 includes the completion of the Norwalk, IA, precooked egg facility expansion and continued cage-free egg facility expansion, for aggregate expenditures of $80-$90 million. Vital Farms' Pasteur-Raised Offerings Have an Edge The specialty egg (including pasture raised and free-range) market has witnessed a CAGR of 21.4% between 2020 and 2024 to reach $8.3 billion in retail sales in 2024. Vital Farms, Inc. VITL, the leading U.S. pasture-raised egg brand, is riding strong consumer demand, with customers willing to pay more for ethically sourced, transparent and sustainable food. Vital Farms continues to accelerate supply expansion. During the first quarter of 2025, Vital Farms added new family farms to its network, which now exceeds 450 family farmers. Vital Farms' internal capacity expansion plans also remain on track, with the construction of an additional egg washing and packing line at its Egg Central Station facility in Missouri slated for completion during the fourth quarter of 2025, as originally scheduled. CALM's Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates Cal-Maine gained 68.1% in a year against the industry 's 9.2% decline. CALM is currently trading at a forward 12-month price/earnings (P/E) ratio of 17.84X compared with the industry's 11.32X. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Cal-Maine's fiscal 2025 earnings is $22.73 per share, indicating a year-over-year increase of 299.5%. The estimate for fiscal 2026 of $5.71 indicates a 74.9% decline. The chart below depicts the revision activity for CALM's earnings estimates for 2025 and 2026. CALM currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Only $1 to See All Zacks' Buys and Sells We're not kidding. Several years ago, we shocked our members by offering them 30-day access to all our picks for the total sum of only $1. No obligation to spend another cent. Thousands have taken advantage of this opportunity. Thousands did not - they thought there must be a catch. Yes, we do have a reason. We want you to get acquainted with our portfolio services like Surprise Trader, Stocks Under $10, Technology Innovators, and more, that closed 256 positions with double- and triple-digit gains in 2024 alone. See Stocks Now >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. (CALM): Free Stock Analysis Report Post Holdings, Inc. (POST): Free Stock Analysis Report Vital Farms, Inc. (VITL): Free Stock Analysis Report
Washington Post
19-06-2025
- Washington Post
The Great Egg Heist: 280,000 eggs disappeared from America's top producer. Then came a ransom note.
'I'd like to report a crime,' said the man who called a Maryland sheriff's office on April 16. There was a theft, he explained, involving a freight truck. 'So they stole the whole freight?' a dispatcher asked. 'Only took the cargo,' the man answered. It was valued, he said, at about $100,000. The dispatcher asked what was stolen. The caller hesitated. 'They took … basically … they took a whole trailer full of eggs.' The hens were unaware of the heist. They had done their part: the shuffling around, the squatting down, the gentle plop! to release one perfect orb, ready to be tucked into a carton and shipped to the grocery aisles and diner griddles and breakfast tables of America. Before the product of their labor was an item on a police report, it was a shipment headed from Maryland to Florida: 280,000 brown eggs, sizes large and extra large. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement They belonged to Cal-Maine Foods, which boasts being 'number one in the pecking order' of egg supply. About 1 of every 5 eggs sold in America are laid by a Cal-Maine hen. They line the refrigerated shelves of Walmarts, Costcos and other supermarkets, labeled Eggland's Best, Land O'Lakes and various generic brands. By gobbling up its competitors, Cal-Maine built an egg empire without most egg eaters knowing the company's name. But by the April afternoon when the 280,000 eggs left the farm, that was beginning to change. A winter spike in bird flu was widely seen as the cause of empty shelves and eggs doubling or tripling in price. Breakfast joints, from small-town cafes to mega-chain Waffle House, began charging extra for eggs. Backyard chickens, a DIY solution to one shortage, led to another, of baby chicks. In his first four months in office, President Donald Trump, who'd declared he'd 'won on groceries,' said the word 'eggs' in public at least 167 times. With prices soaring, eggs of all brands were reported stolen from porches and farm stands. Two thieves were captured on camera sprinting through snow with more than 500 eggs from a Seattle cafe. A truck full of eggs was driven off an organic farm in Indiana. At one point, federal agents at the border were seizing eggs more often than fentanyl. Then in February, bandits grabbed about 100,000 organic eggs from the back of a trailer at a facility in Pennsylvania. The theft garnered weeks of international media attention, but it remains unsolved. The shipment of eggs stolen from Cal-Maine's Maryland farm in April was nearly three times that size. One worker at the farm suspected an inside job. An employee of a nearby deli wondered who really, really loved egg salad. With Easter just days away, neighbors on Facebook pointed fingers at a certain bunny. Cal-Maine said nothing publicly about the disappearance and declined interviews with The Washington Post. In the weeks leading to the heist, Cal-Maine itself had come under investigation. The Justice Department had launched a formal inquiry into the spike in egg prices — and was specifically looking into Cal-Maine's business practices. Farmers accused the egg giant of price gouging. Lawmakers demanded answers about the company's record profits. In Maryland, law enforcement suspected that what happened to the eggs was connected to what was happening to America: Prices were high, and folks were flustered. Everybody was looking for someone to blame. Was this a Robin Hood-style strike at Cal-Maine? A crime of market-driven opportunity? Can someone really get away with stealing 280,000 eggs? The detective heard a knock on the edge of his cubicle. William Muller, 41, investigated property crimes at the Cecil County Sheriff's Office. Typically, that meant stolen cars and stolen copper. Once, it meant stolen crabs. 'I'm so egg-cited to give you your next case,' joked his boss, Sgt. Michael Kalinsky, on April 16. 'I'm egg-silarated.' They were familiar with the egg farm, one of many poultry farms on a part of Maryland's Eastern Shore the cops called 'the chicken corridor.' When the farm's hens were sickened with bird flu in 2022, the sheriff's office was tasked with securing its perimeter. What the deputies remembered most about the Warwick farm, though, was the time in 2011 when a fire killed 300,000 hens. The town smelled like roast chicken for days. Sgt. Michael Kalinsky of the Cecil County Sheriff's Office. Detective William Muller of the Cecil County Sheriff's Office. 1 Click or tap these icons to see additional sourcing and background information. The first step for Muller, who liked his eggs scrambled, and Kalinsky, a sunny-side-up man, was to review the initial police report. A deputy had driven to the farm to get the basics of what happened. His body camera was rolling. 1 1 The Post reviewed the footage, law enforcement records and other materials to reconstruct the investigation. The Post reviewed the footage, law enforcement records and other materials to reconstruct the investigation. 'I thought egg prices were coming down?' the deputy asked the staff. Eggs, one employee responded, were 'so lucrative.' 'People never think about it, but it's crazy,' she said. She led him to a conference room. Inside was a whiteboard with cartoon chickens drawn on it. Their bulging eyes watched over the meeting. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement The staff began explaining what happened. 'That many eggs?' the deputy said. 'Holy shit.' They showed him internal invoices that valued the stolen loot at $36,621, or roughly $1.57 per dozen — a fraction of what consumers would have paid at the store. The deputy asked for the name of the victim in the case. Previously, the egg farm had been owned by ISE America. But in 2024, Cal-Maine had paid about $110 million for around 4,000 acres and 4.7 million chickens, expanding its empire along the East Coast. It was one of more than two dozen companies Cal-Maine had acquired since it was founded in 1957 by a 6-foot-4-inch Mississippi farmer named Fred Adams Jr. He was known to many as 'The Big Chicken.' 'If we had a Mount Rushmore,' the head of United Egg Producers once said, 'Mr. Adams would most definitely be our George Washington.' The Big Chicken's big strategy was to own almost every step of the process: the hen breeding, the chick hatching, the pullet growing, the feed milling, the egg processing, the carton packaging, the wholesale distributing. After he died in 2020, Adams's four daughters maintained majority control of the publicly traded company, which churns out more than 8 million eggs an hour — a dozen for just about every person in Boston — and sells more than 13 billion a year. 2 2 The Post reviewed company statistics published on its website, investor relations presentations and other securities filings. The Post reviewed company statistics published on its website, investor relations presentations and other securities filings. Cal-Maine founder Fred Adams Jr. was affectionately known as "The Big Chicken.' Not every part of Cal-Maine's business is in-house — it still contracts with farmers to buy eggs and regularly relies on other companies for shipping. And that, the sheriff's office realized, was where things had gone wrong. While reviewing the initial report, Muller and Kalinsky noted that it was not a Cal-Maine truck that picked up the 280,000 eggs on April 11. Cal-Maine had hired an outside company, called a freight broker, to arrange transportation. Minh Dang, who loved a good egg crepe, worked for the Florida broker who handled the shipment. To find a trucker, he advertised on DAT, a popular job site for haulers. A man named Bernardo responded. He agreed to pick up the eggs and deliver them to two Cal-Maine facilities in Florida. Dang said he took all his usual precautions: He checked Bernardo's credentials, including his motor carrier number, years in business and accident history. He confirmed with Bernardo that the cargo was dropped off in Florida as promised. But then, Cal-Maine contacted Dang: Where were their eggs? Story continues below advertisement Advertisement Dang assumed it was a simple mix-up. He asked the Maryland farm for paperwork. They sent a receipt from the trucker who picked up the load, showing that he had followed the protocol of taking his 18-wheeler to a truck wash to be sanitized to prevent the spread of disease. When Dang reviewed the receipt, he realized someone other than Bernardo had paid for the truck wash and picked up the eggs. Dang called Bernardo. No answer. He emailed, asking for proof of delivery. 3 3 The Post interviewed Dang and a co-worker and reviewed law enforcement records detailing the theft. The Post interviewed Dang and a co-worker and reviewed law enforcement records detailing the theft. Dang started to panic. It was the week before Easter. The eggs should have already been hard-boiled and dunked in dyes. He'd seen news stories about egg thefts across the country, including the 100,000 eggs pilfered in Pennsylvania. At 3:45 p.m. on April 15, he tried a new tactic, emailing: 'You will be fine[d] $200 for not sending paper work in time. This fine will increase the longer we wait.' Bernardo replied within the hour. 'You need to zelle or wire $7500 if you want your eggs.' A ransom note was sent after the eggs were stolen. Two months earlier, an Ohio farmer named Angela Huffman had carefully composed an email of her own. Hers, too, was about eggs and a possible crime. 'Attached please find a letter outlining potential monopolization and anticompetitive coordination that we uncovered,' she wrote to the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department. Huffman, who scrambled her organic eggs with feta, asked the agencies to investigate alleged profiteering and collusion by the companies dominating America's egg market — in particular, Cal-Maine. Farm Action co-founder Angela Huffman. Huffman sent the letter on behalf of Farm Action, a watchdog organization she co-founded. When the 42-year-old farmer wasn't breeding sheep or tending chickens, she was leading a team of six people who fought corporate practices they said were hurting small farmers, food chain workers and consumers. Usually, she worked out of the rural farmhouse in northwest Ohio that has been in her family for more than 200 years. But in hopes of getting the incoming Trump administration's attention on issues Farm Action cared about, she had boarded her animals, packed up a picture of her farm and temporarily moved to an apartment in the nation's capital. On the surface, Huffman understood, the rise in egg prices over the past few years made sense. Bird flu had killed millions of hens. Fewer hens meant fewer eggs. Fewer eggs meant higher prices — prices most shoppers, committed to their morning routines and baking needs, were still willing to pay. But Huffman and Farm Action argued that Cal-Maine and other major egg producers were exploiting this situation, using the avian flu as an excuse to goose profits, then buying up rivals. In 2022, H5N1 struck commercial poultry. That year, Cal-Maine didn't lose a single hen to bird flu. That December, Cal-Maine reported quarterly profits 169 times higher than the year before. This wasn't the first time the company had come under scrutiny for egg pricing. 4 4 Cal-Maine, in its December 2022 earnings report, stated the increase in profits resulted from significantly higher selling prices due to the avian flu and good customer demand. Cal-Maine, in its December 2022 earnings report, stated the increase in profits resulted from significantly higher selling prices due to the avian flu and good customer demand. In 2023, a federal jury in Illinois found that Cal-Maine and others in the industry had conspired in the past to inflate the price of eggs in part by restricting the supply of hens. They were ordered to pay out more than $43 million in damages. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement The company is also still fighting a civil lawsuit in which Texas authorities accused it of price gouging during the pandemic. 'Cal-Maine Foods continues to believe that the Company did nothing wrong,' the business said in a statement in 2023. That year, Huffman and Farm Action alerted the federal government to Cal-Maine's substantial profits, asking for an investigation. Since then, Cal-Maine had grown even bigger, scooping up more competitors and their hens. The government had handed Cal-Maine more than $40 million in taxpayer money for bird-flu relief payments. Cal-Maine was on track to make $1 billion in profits in a single year. Cal-Maine, Huffman knew, was paying one of its contract egg farmers as little as 26.75 cents per dozen. Shoppers were regularly paying more than $6, and sometimes up to $10 , per carton. 5 5 The Post reviewed a copy of an independent egg farmer's contract with Cal-Maine obtained by Farm Action. The contract also includes other support for flock care and egg production. The Post reviewed a copy of an independent egg farmer's contract with Cal-Maine obtained by Farm Action. The contract also includes other support for flock care and egg production. Three weeks after Huffman sent the letter, news broke that the Justice Department had opened an investigation into Cal-Maine and other egg producers to determine if they had violated antitrust laws. At first, the company had little public response, beyond acknowledging that it was cooperating. But after weeks of news articles, reports from advocacy groups and calls from lawmakers, Cal-Maine chief executive Sherman Miller gave an interview and tour to the Wall Street Journal. 'Someone has to get blamed for everything. They're looking for a villain,' Miller told the Journal. 'We don't control the power to lower egg prices.' Through a public relations official who specializes in 'complex reputational challenges,' Cal-Maine declined to answer all but one question from The Post on the record: CEO Miller most enjoys his eggs in an omelet for dinner after a long day. Cal-Maine defended its practices in an FAQ posted on its website in April, saying it did not keep eggs off the market to keep prices high, is working to rebuild its flock and cannot do more to bring down prices. Cal-Maine bought this Maryland farm in 2024. Cal-Maine sells more than 13 billion eggs a year. Egg producers are not 'price-makers,' Cal-Maine argued, but are 'price-takers.' As a commodity, eggs are priced largely based on a system in which a private research firm crunches sales data from egg producers, retailers and others to calculate what eggs are worth on a given day. Critics say this system incentivizes egg producers to report inflated rates, ultimately leading the firm to set higher prices. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement 'It would be irrational for us to act in any manner that undermines growth in our core egg business,' Cal-Maine's FAQ explained. Posting these answers didn't put an end to the questioning of Cal-Maine, especially as the company reported that the four daughters of Fred 'The Big Chicken' Adams Jr. had started selling off family shares worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Executives discussed the move in April in the company's earnings report, in which it announced another quarter of record profits. Three days later, the 280,000 eggs disappeared. Before calling the sheriff's office, Dang and his co-worker at the Florida freight broker did some more sleuthing to figure out who had picked up the eggs. They had one clue: the truck wash receipt. It had a details about another trucking company. Before picking up the eggs, the trucker had his trailer cleaned here. Dang tracked down the trucker's phone number. A man answered. Dang pleaded: 'Where are my eggs?' The trucker told Dang — and eventually the detective — what happened. He agreed to share his story with The Post on the condition that he not be named, saying he feared retaliation from people 'with resources.' The trucker said he picked up the egg delivery on the online job site, like with any other haul. It seemed straightforward. A freight broker gave him an address for the Maryland farm, and a deadline to retrieve 40,000 pounds of eggs with a declared value of $100,000. The trucker, who was in the habit of putting chili powder and lime on his hard-boiled eggs, said he was paid $1,000 up front, sent via Zelle to the owner of the trucking company he worked for. The broker promised another $900 after the trucker dropped off the eggs. 6 6 The Post confirmed the trucker's account with the owner of the trucking company and law enforcement. The Post confirmed the trucker's account with the owner of the trucking company and law enforcement. But his destination wasn't Florida: The broker directed him to an address in New York. It was a lot of money for a few hours of driving, but he'd be traveling to one of the most dreaded places for a trucker, or really anyone, in rush hour: Staten Island. When the trucker was a half-hour away, the broker advised that there were delays at the warehouse. He was redirected to a parking lot near some baseball fields, where he found a man waiting to set up a temporary loading dock. Muller, the detective, reviews the trucker's route. An 18-wheeler transported the eggs from Maryland to Staten Island. The trucker had been awake for almost 24 hours. Thinking his job was done, he said, he decided to lie down in the cab of his truck while the eggs were unloaded. He fell asleep. When he woke up, it was dark. The people were gone. The eggs were gone. The trucker found it odd that no one knocked on his cab door to finish the paperwork. But when he called his boss, the trucker learned the other $900 was sitting in the Zelle account, as promised. He assumed everything was fine. A few days later, the same broker called to offer another job: Get 30,000 pounds of pig skins from Ohio to Staten Island. The trucker was hauling the pig skins, he said, when he got the call from Dang in Florida. Missing eggs. Stolen goods. Big problem. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement The trucker insisted to Dang that he had no idea the eggs he transported were poached. Dang would come to realize 'Bernardo' had posed as a legitimate hauler to find out where the eggs were, then hired the trucker to take them to Staten Island, where they could have been quickly sold to bodegas throughout New York City. 'Listen, your eggs are gone,' the trucker told Dang. 'But these pig skins, I can still save them.' Two months later, 'Bernardo' remains at large. This kind of scam, trucking experts say, has soared in recent years. Identity theft, phishing and other tactics are used to trick brokers and truckers into handing cargo to criminal groups. Eggs — with their fragility and short shelf life — had not been a common target. But as prices rose, so did their value on the black market. In Staten Island, near the parking lot where the eggs were unloaded, a reporter was kicked out of an auto body shop while asking for security footage. Around the corner, the owner of a bagel shop (voted best bacon, egg and cheese in Staten Island) said he would have gladly accepted black market eggs, but no one ever approached him. The trucker eventually persuaded the pig skin shipper to take back their goods. Then he got one last call from the scammer. 'I know what you're doing,' the trucker said he told the man. The trucker's boss was on the line, listening. He said he'd never forget what the scammer told them before hanging up: 'Everybody gotta do what they gotta do. This is how we feed our family.' Detective Muller and Sgt. Kalinsky believe the scammer stole the identity of a real man named Bernardo, with a real trucking company, which is why his credentials checked out. After The Post contacted DAT, the website where the scammer reposted the job, the company said it tracked down the real Bernardo to help him protect his accounts. The detective said he believes the price of eggs undoubtedly set the heist in motion, but he said he still questions the scammer's motive. Maybe he was part of an organized crime ring looking to make a score. Maybe he wanted to stick it to The Man. Or, in this case, The Big Chicken. For consumers, a carton of eggs costs about 69 percent more on average than it did a year ago. But it is far cheaper than it was in March. Lawmakers have questioned whether such a 'precipitous drop' — shortly after news of the Justice Department's investigation broke — means egg producers conspired to inflate prices. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement On Capitol Hill, a bill was introduced to stop certain government funds from flowing to large, highly profitable egg producers like Cal-Maine. At the White House, where Trump is said to eat his eggs over-well, officials declined to comment. Angela Huffman, who asked for the federal investigation, said she could not say whether Justice Department officials have interviewed her and her colleagues at Farm Action. She has since moved back to her farm in Ohio, where her hens provide her with fresh eggs every day. Huffman reviews the letter her organization sent to the Justice Department. Huffman raises Katahdin sheep on her Ohio farm. At the Maryland farm, the hens — and their eggs — could be under tighter security. On the day that the Cecil County Sheriff's Office began its investigation, workers discussed with the deputy the need for better cameras. One made a request, in case the culprit was ever tracked down: 'If you find them, can we have them for about 30 minutes?' The deputy didn't hesitate. 'We'll just put 'em in one of them chicken pens out there.' 'Yeah,' another employee agreed. 'We'll see how they like it.'
Globe and Mail
16-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. Announces Release Date for First Quarter Fiscal 2022 Results
Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: CALM) today announced that the Company will release its first quarter fiscal 2022 financial results on Tuesday, September 28, 2021. A press release will be issued after the close of market trading. Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. is primarily engaged in the production, grading, packing, marketing and sale of fresh shell eggs, including conventional, cage-free, organic and nutritionally enhanced eggs. The Company, which is headquartered in Ridgeland, Mississippi, is the largest producer and distributor of fresh shell eggs in the United States and sells the majority of its shell eggs in states across the southwestern, southeastern, mid-western and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.
