Description

Cal-Maine Foods: Echo Lake and Crepini Expansion—A Prepared Foods Scale-Up That Changes Everything!

Cal-Maine Foods delivered a profitable second quarter of fiscal 2026 despite a sharp decline in conventional egg pricing versus an unusually strong prior-year environment. Net sales fell to $769.5 million from $954.7 million, largely reflecting a 26.5% decline in overall shell egg selling prices and a 2.2% decrease in shell egg volumes. Conventional egg sales dropped 41% on lower prices, while specialty egg sales were essentially flat at $285.7 million, with stable pricing and volumes. This performance highlights the company’s increasing reliance on mix and channel strategy rather than pure commodity exposure, with shell eggs representing 84.4% of net sales versus 94.7% a year ago, and specialty eggs accounting for 44% of shell egg sales versus 31.7%. Specialty eggs and prepared foods together contributed 46.4% of net sales, up materially from 31.2%, reinforcing the shift toward products that tend to be less volatile than conventional spot-driven categories.