The 2021 Top Egg Company Survey estimates that the 68 largest U.S. egg producers had 345.36 million hens housed on December 31, 2020, 3.08 million more than the 342.28 million hens reported in the 2020 survey. 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 Top Egg Company Survey report estimates that there are 20 million more hens housed in the U.S. than does the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The December 22, 2020, USDA Chicken and Eggs report estimated that the U.S. had 325.2 million table egg laying hens housed on December 1, 2020. The USDA estimates that the cage-free layer flock in the U.S. grew by more than 9 million head in 2020.
Top 5 companies add few hens
Cal-Maine Foods is still the largest egg producer in the U.S. and the world with 44.26 million hens housed on December 31, 2020. Rose Acre Farms is estimated to have 27.6 million hens housed, up 1 million head from last year’s survey, and is the nation’s second largest egg producer. Versova Holdings had 20.06 million hens housed on December 31, down approximately 1 million from the prior survey. Hillandale Farms’ flock numbers were unchanged from last year at 20 million head, while Daybreak Foods’ flock grew by 1 million hens to 15 million. In total, the top 5 egg producers in the U.S. added just over 200,000 hens since the previous survey.
Fewer hens in top 10 companies
Michael Foods remains the sixth largest egg producer with 13.5 million hens housed. MPS Egg Farms, with 11.1 million hens moved from the eighth spot to seventh largest in this year’s survey.
Rembrandt Enterprises, which had been the seventh largest, reduced the size of its flock from 11.9 million head of hens in last year’s survey to 7.0 million this year and fell to the 13th spot in this year’s rankings. In April 2020, Rembrandt Foods announced plans to close its egg processing plant in Neosho, Missouri. The company cited a competitive global egg market as a factor in making the decision to close the plant. The workload at the Neosho facility was expected to be transferred to the plant in Iowa.
Prairie Star Farms reduced its hens housed to 10.6 million, 0.2 million less than last year, but moved to the eighth spot in the rankings. Herbruck’s Poultry Ranch added 1.1 million layers in 2020 and moved up from the 11th to the ninth position in the rankings with 9.7 million hens housed. Center Fresh Group rounds out the top 10 egg producers with 9.37 million head of hens housed. In total, the top 10 U.S. egg producers housed 52.5% of the total U.S. table egg laying flock in this year’s survey, down from 53.9% in last year’s survey.
Ranking 11 to 20
Weaver Brothers, with 8.5 million hens housed, places at 11th in the rankings. In October, Opal Foods, the 12th largest U.S. egg producer with 8.4 million hens housed, announced that Rose Acre Farms and Weaver Eggs have purchased AGR Partners’ entire interest in Opal Foods. Opal Foods continues to be operated as an independent company.
Sauder’s Eggs was one of the biggest movers in the survey this year, rising from the 25th in last year’s rankings to 14th this year by adding 2.11 million hens. Hickman’s Egg Ranch added 0.7 million head of hens in 2020 and comes in at 15th in the rankings. Fremont Farms of Iowa reduced its flock by 1.07 million hens in 2020 and ranks 16th with 5.99 million layers.
Kreider Farms reduced its flock by 0.28 million layers and ranks 17th, with 5.8 million hens. Mid-States Specialty Eggs added 0.76 million hens in 2020 and moved from 22nd in the rankings last year to 18th this year. Sparboe Farms holds down the 19th place in the rankings this year, with 5.5 million layers. Gemperle Family farms and ISE America are tied at 20th, with 5.3 million hens each.
The market share for the top 20 U.S. egg producers remained virtually unchanged from last year at just less than 73% of the total.
