Cal-Maine Foods reported US$954.7 million in net sales for the second quarter of fiscal 2025, an 82% increase from the same period last year, in its recent financial review.
According to Cal-Maine Foods President and Chief Executive Officer Sherman Miller, the sharp increase in net sales is attributed to the growing demand for shell eggs around the holiday season and higher egg prices, which is due to outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) affecting supply.
Miller stated, “Robust demand for shell eggs resulted in a significant increase in dozens sold for the quarter, which included the seasonal boost leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday and sales from our latest acquisition completed in June. Our results also reflect higher market prices, which have continued to rise this fiscal year as supply levels of shell eggs have been restricted due to recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).”
Increased demand
In the second fiscal quarter of 2025, Cal-Maine said it sold 329.8 million dozens of shell eggs, compared to 288.2 million dozens in the second quarter of fiscal 2024.
Cal-Maine Foods, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Max Bowman said, “We saw over 25% quarterly growth in our specialty egg volumes as sales totaled 120.2 million dozens sold for the second quarter of fiscal 2025 compared with 95.7 million dozens sold for the prior-year period.”
Bowman added that farm production costs per dozen were 8.5% lower and feed costs per dozen were 12.8% lower compared to the same quarter last year, further improving the company’s profit.
New additions
Cal-Maine has approximately US$60 million in new capital projects to expand its cage-free capacity, in addition to the US$40 million in projects it announced in October 2024. The projects include the addition of five new cage-free layer houses and two pullet houses across the producer’s locations in Florida, Georgia, Utah and Texas.
Cal-Maine expects the projects to provide additional production capacity for approximately 1.1 million cage-free layers and 250,000 pullets by the end of summer 2025.
Miller added, “We are also investing US$15 million to expand our egg products processing facility in Blackshear, Georgia, to add extended shelf-life liquid egg products. We expect our processing plant and hatchery in Dexter, Missouri, that we acquired and repurposed for use in shell egg production, will be online in our next fiscal quarter. We have been working with local contract growers and have commitments for approximately 1.2 million additional free-range hens by fall 2025.”
According to WATT Global Media’s 2025 Top Egg Company Survey, Cal-Maine Foods is the largest producer and marketer of shell eggs in the U.S. with 50.61 million layers.
