Missouri egg plant accused of price fixing

Published Thursday, October 9, 2008

NEOSHO (AP) - A southwest Missouri egg-production plant is named in four federal lawsuits claiming it and other companies conspired to fix domestic egg prices.

Moark LLC was among 13 major U.S. egg producers and three egg-trade groups that were sued late last week in Pennsylvania federal court. Moark also is a co-defendant in three other similar suits - two in Pennsylvania and one in Minnesota - filed in late September.

All four suits allege that U.S. egg producers conspired to "artificially control and reduce the supply of eggs" with the intent to create "artificially high, supracompetitive prices for eggs" in recent years.

The suit filed last week claims that egg producers lowered the supply of eggs by reducing the number of hens allowed in a cage and then not increasing the total number of cages to make up for that. The suit says the change was made in the name of animal welfare but had "absolutely nothing to do with humane practices."

The suit also claims that egg producers exported eggs first to Europe and the Middle East, then to Japan and Iraq, at a level below prevailing U.S. market prices to reduce the domestic supply and trigger a price increase.

Moark is a subsidiary of Land O’Lakes Inc. and is based in Minnesota, with operations in California, Connecticut and Neosho.