Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. is an American fresh

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

producer, established in 1969 and based in

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, along with Raymond. The city had a population of 153,701 at t ...

. Its eggs are sold mostly in mid-Atlantic, midwestern, southeastern, and southwestern states. These regions account for approximately a quarter of US egg consumption. Cal-Maine is a public company trading on the NASDAQ, headed by its founder, Fred R. Adams, Jr., whose family owns a controlling interest.

Recent history

On May 1, 2012, Cal-Maine announced a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...

between the

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...

Eggland's Best and

Land O'Lakes Land O'Lakes, Inc. is an American member-owned agricultural cooperative based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb of Arden Hills, Minnesota, United States, focusing on the dairy industry. The cooperative has 1,959 direct producer-members, 751 ...

. Cal-Maine was the largest

franchisee Franchising is based on a marketing concept which can be adopted by an organization as a strategy for business expansion. Where implemented, a franchisor licenses some or all of its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its busine ...

of Eggland's Best and one of the company's 13 shareholders. As of 2011, 16 percent of Cal-Maine egg sales were Eggland's Best. In 2018, an investigation at Lake Wales Farm by the animal rights group Animal Recovery Mission (ARM) indicated that chickens suffer inhumane living conditions and abuse by employees. After further investigation by the Polk County sheriff's department and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), it was found that the farm had followed American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) protocols for euthanizing poultry. No confirmation of abuse was found. According to the
San Francisco Chronicle
', in response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, in the spring of 2020, Cal-Maine increased egg prices some 300% - from $1 to $3.44 per dozen. This triggered at least one lawsuit challenging the price hike as unjustified, since there hadn't been an actual supply chain interruption. Early in the morning of December17, 2020, a fire destroyed two barns at Cal-Maine's

Dade City Dade City is a city in and the county seat of Pasco County, Florida, United States. It is located in the Tampa Bay Area. The population was 6,437 at the 2010 census. Dade City is popular with tourists for its antique stores, restaurants, and h ...

, Florida facilities. The fire killed over 240,000 chickens, including 120,000

pullet The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adul ...

s; the financial loss was estimated to be over $1 million.

Principal subsidiaries

* Cal-Maine Farms, Inc. * Southern Equipment Distributors, Inc. * South Texas Applicators, Inc. * Cal-Maine Partnership, Ltd. * CMF of Kansas, LLCads 2004 *

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.calmainefoods.com Food manufacturers of the United States Companies based in Jackson, Mississippi Food and drink companies established in 1969 1969 establishments in Mississippi Companies listed on the Nasdaq Eggs (food)