The Egyptian Competition Authority has filed a criminal lawsuit against 162 broiler chick producers, accusing them of forming agreements to fix daily prices in violation of the country’s competition law, according to a statement from the authority. The alleged coordination impacted chick and poultry prices nationwide.

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So, what happened? The authority’s investigation found the accused companies colluding daily to fix broiler chick prices for poultry farmers and exchanging sensitive market data, including supply levels, raw material costs, and demand trends. This coordinated price-setting drove up chick prices well beyond their actual cost, which consumers ended up bearing.

How big of a price hike are we talking? The actual production cost of a day-old chick is no more than EGP 25, yet market prices have surged to EGP 60 per chick, according to an industry source.

The authority’s investigation confirmed the Poultry Producers Union was directly involved in the price-fixing scheme, allegedly facilitating, encouraging, and enforcing compliance with the agreed-upon pricing, the statement reads. This lent credibility to the collusion, allowing it to persist over an extended period and further driving up poultry prices.

This marks the first time the Poultry Producers Union has been directly accused in a monopoly case, Cairo Chamber of Commerce’s poultry division head Abdel Aziz El Sayed told EnterpriseAM.

A recurring issue: The authority refers criminal cases against poultry producers to public prosecutors almost annually. The most recent case, in September, was against 21 major table egg producers accused of colluding to raise prices.

However, such cases rarely lead to meaningful consequences, according to El Sayed, who said that they often end with modest fines or outright dismissal, allowing anti-competitive practices to persist. To deter future violations, he called for harsher penalties, including jail time and publicly naming offenders — a measure adopted in several other countries to discourage such practices, he added.

Union pushes back: Poultry Producers Union Chairman Mahmoud Al Anani denied that the union had any role in price-fixing, telling EnterpriseAM the union had no direct or indirect involvement in setting chick or poultry prices. The union is now in talks with the authority to obtain a list of the accused companies and review the case details.

Pointing the finger at the FX crunch: The price surge, Al Anani argued, stems from a supply crunch, worsened by foreign currency shortages that delayed imports of stock for broiler production. The market will need at least seven months to stabilize, he said. The union has called an emergency meeting this week to address the crisis, Al Mal reported.

The nature of the poultry business — live birds, fresh eggs, and hours-old chicks — makes hoarding impossible, said Tharwat El Zeiny, deputy head of the Poultry Producers Union.

The real culprit, he argued, isn’t price-fixing but soaring costs. A 500% spike in vaccine and serum prices, combined with FX shortages, has driven up chick prices. To keep the market stable, he urged authorities to enforce the law which bans live poultry trading and could help balance prices year-round.

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