Egg Industry magazine’s 2020 Top Egg Company Survey identified 68 egg producers whose flocks totaled 342.36 million hens housed on December 31, 2019. This represents an increase of 4.48 million hens from the 2019 survey results. The Top Egg Company survey is conducted annually, and the results reported are composed of a combination of company-submitted information and estimates made based on input from publicly reported information and industry sources.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Chicken & Egg Report released December 23, 2019, estimated the U.S. table egg laying flock to be 340.5 million hens on December 1, 2019, which is 9.55 million more hens than the USDA estimated on December 1, 2018.
Cal-Maine Foods’ acquisition of Mahard Egg Farm increased the company’s hen flock to 44.99 million head on December 31, 2019. The company remains the largest egg producer in the U.S. and the world.
Acquisitions affect rankings
Rose Acre Farms remained the second largest U.S. egg producer, with 26.6 million hens housed. Versova Holdings LLC, which combines day-to-day operations of egg producers Centrum Valley Farms L.L.P., Trillium Farm Holdings L.L.C. and Iowa Cage-free L.L.P., is in third position in the survey with 21.1 million hens housed. Hillandale Farms is in the fourth position with 20 million hens and Daybreak Foods, with 14 million head of hens, rounds out the top five egg producers.
Michael Foods is in sixth position this year with 13.3 million hens. Rembrandt Enterprises is in seventh position in this year’s survey with 11.9 million hens. MPS Egg Farms, formerly referred to as Midwest Poultry Services LLP, moved up to eight in the rankings with 10.9 million hens. The Center Fresh Group and Prairie Star Farms tied at ninth in the rankings with 10.8 million hens.
In addition to Cal-Maine Foods’ acquisition of Mahard Egg Farms, Cooper Farms acquired the assets of Hemmelgarn & Sons Inc. in 2019. Cooper farms reported having 5 million hens at the end of 2019, an increase of 1.8 million head. Cooper is now tied with Sunrise Farms Inc. in 20th place in the ranking, up from 30th in last year’s rankings.
Industry concentration
The level of concentration of the U.S. egg industry has increased somewhat in the past six years. In the 2015 survey, the top five egg producers controlled the output of 34% of the hens reported in the Top Egg Company Survey. In the 2020 survey, the top five egg producers controlled the output of 37% of the survey’s hens. The amount of the country’s hens housed by the top 10 egg producers has increased from 50% in 2015 to 53.9% in 2020. There has been little change in the proportion of the nation’s layer flock controlled by the top 20 producers in the past six years; in 2015 it was 72% versus 72.9% in 2020.
