More than a million eggs from Hickman’s Family Farms in Arizona will be distributed to communities across Hawaiʻi over the next two months. The 1.08 million eggs are part of a major settlement.
In June, the U.S. Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, in partnership with 17 State Attorneys General, including Hawaiʻi's office, found that some agricultural partners and farms were working together to artificially inflate their prices. The Justice Department calls this “coordinated benchmark manipulation.”
Along with the civil lawsuit, the department also filed a settlement to ensure this type of price inflation would not happen again in the future.
The batch of 90,000 dozen eggs in Hawaiʻi will go to the Hawaiʻi Foodbank and its partners on each island for distribution to communities across the state. Amy Miller, the president and CEO of the foodbank, said this is ideal timing with the strain on food supply and security following the recent hurricanes.
“Coming on the heels of Lala and Lowell, we know that things like eggs are one of the most in-demand items that we get. Every time we get eggs in, they go out the door immediately,” Miller said to HPR. “Especially as power starts to come back on from some of the affected areas, eggs will be really in high demand. So, we're really excited to have these in, and they're going right out to our communities.”
The first batch of egg pallets arrived on Sep. 14, and deliveries are scheduled to continue to each of the major islands over the next nine weeks. Oʻahu is set to receive 56,700 dozen eggs, 4,500 dozen eggs will go to Kauaʻi, Maui will receive 8,1000 dozen eggs, 1,350 dozen eggs for Molokaʻi, 450 dozen eggs for Lānaʻi, and 18,900 dozen for Hawaiʻi Island.
The shipping, storage and transportation is being directed by the Hawaiʻi Foodservice Alliance, which already ships products from the West Coast. Eunice Lin, director of highly perishable items, said it was an easy decision for a good cause.
“It just naturally evolved into us partnering with the AG's office and the food banks because we already ship out of the West Coast, and we already have a really good relationship with each of the food banks on each island,” Lin said. “So once we all got together, it was really easy to collaborate and figure out a timeline and how to just get the eggs here and how to get it out to the community. So just a few weeks later, here we are.”
