The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has launched civil proceedings in the Federal Court against Australia’s largest egg supplier, Sunny Queen, and 11 other egg producers and suppliers, alleging cartel conduct and other breaches of the Competition and Consumer Act in the production and supply of eggs.
The ACCC alleges that since at least October 2020, the companies coordinated on business decisions including production volumes, distribution, expansion plans and culling to manage perceived oversupply, in a way that likely substantially reduced competition. The alleged conduct covers free-range, cage and organic eggs.
ACCC chair, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, said, “Our investigation has uncovered alleged widespread anti-competitive conduct in the egg industry that we allege has impacted the supply of eggs to Australian consumers since at least 2020.
“These companies are alleged to have coordinated in a range of decisions about their business operations, including the retailers each business could supply, what volumes they could produce and when to cull birds to manage periods of perceived over-supply.”
The 12 respondents are:
- Sunny Queen Australia Pty Ltd and Sunny Queen Pty Limited;
- McLean entities – Alpair Pty Ltd (trading as McLean Farms), McLean Poultry Pty Ltd and McLean Farm Sales Pty Ltd;
- Hall entities – Doug Hall Poultry Pty Ltd, DHP Consolidated Pty Ltd, Ellerslie Free Range Farms Pty Ltd, Abbeyliz Pty Ltd and Yallamundi Farms Pty Ltd;
- Hall & McLean Pty Ltd; and
- Kinross Farm Pty Ltd.
Sunny Queen suppliers around one third of eggs nationally. It acquires, markets and distributes eggs, with warehouse and distribution facilities in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.
It is jointly owned by Ellerslie Free Range Farms and McLean Farms. Doug Hall Poultry held 50 per cent of the shares until it was acquired by Ellerslie in February 2024. Hall has farms at Yandilla, Turralin and Punchs Creek in Queensland, and McLean Farms operates farms at Pittsworth, Felton and Pinerow in Queensland and Victoria.
Kinross is a Victorian producer with farms including at Euroa and Carisbrook. It was acquired by Pace Farm in early 2025. Pace is owned by private equity firm, ROC Partners.
Alleged agreements
According to the ACCC’s filing, by October 2020 Sunny Queen, Hall and McLean had reached an arrangement under which Hall and McLean would supply substantially all their eggs through Sunny Queen, share forward production and capacity plans, divide opportunities to meet additional Sunny Queen demand equitably, share production cuts equitably, and supply eggs at farm prices calculated by Sunny Queen under a common pricing method.
The ACCC alleges the producers implemented a series of coordinated reductions. These included free-range reductions in October 2020 and between December 2020 and May 2021, and an agreement in December 2021 for Hall and McLean to each reduce cage-egg supply by 200,000 dozen. Also in December 2021, Kinross allegedly agreed to cut its free-range supply by 20,000 dozen a week so that its reductions corresponded with those of Hall and McLean.
In November 2025, Ellerslie and McLean Poultry allegedly agreed between themselves how organic and free-range reductions sought by Sunny Queen would be divided and brought forward depopulations to give effect to it.
The ACCC also alleges that shareholders’ deeds signed in February 2024 required each shareholder group to supply a minimum annual volume of eggs to Sunny Queen, subjected additional eggs to a first-offer process before they could be sold elsewhere, and gave each group the right to supply up to 50 per cent of Sunny Queen’s purchases of each type of shell egg.
Under a supply agreement with Sunny Queen that began on 1 January 2021, Kinross was required to supply its first-quality eggs to Sunny Queen. It could sell up to 15,000 dozen free-range eggs a week to other buyers, but not to Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, Metcash or Costco. When the agreement was amended in April 2023, the prohibition on supplying Coles remained.
The ACCC alleges this was exclusive dealing by Sunny Queen, and that Kinross was knowingly concerned in the contraventions.
The ACCC alleges that between November 2020 and February 2021, Doug Hall Poultry, Alpair and their jointly owned company Hall & McLean Pty Ltd arranged to buy the Yarranlea egg farm in Pittsworth, Queensland, from Farm Pride Foods, with the cost shared equally.
The ACCC alleges the purchase prevented the site being acquired and used by another egg producer, increasing barriers to entry or expansion. At August 2023, the farm had not been used productively by any of the parties or their related entities, according to the concise statement.
Sunny Queen said it cooperated fully with the ACCC during its investigations, has denied the allegations and intended to defend the proceedings.
“We are committed to protecting competition in fresh food supply chains so Australian consumers receive the benefits of businesses competing on price. These proceedings are a reminder that businesses must make their production, supply and pricing decisions independently,” Cass-Gottlieb said.
The ACCC alleges the egg industry is highly concentrated, with a small number of large suppliers and significant barriers to entry and expansion.
Australians consume an average of more than 250 eggs per person each year and Sunny Queen supplies more than 1.5 billion of them. It also sells more than 60 products across three product pillars: shell eggs; liquid eggs; and a ready-to-eat meal range.
