Shell egg exports from African countries are small, averaging less than 6,000 tonnes a year between 2006 and 2008. Only two countries are involved in this trade to any significant extent, South Africa and Zimbabwe (table 1).

Similarly, shipments from Oceania are tiny, still to reach 2,000 tonnes a year since 2000 and again, the business revolves around just two countries – Australia and New Zealand.

However, a much larger number of countries in both Africa and Oceania import shell eggs (table 2).

The total imported into Africa has expanded since 2000 from just over 25,000 tonnes per year to 51,000 tonnes in 2008, while the corresponding figures for Oceania were 700 tonnes and 2,050 tonnes.

Angola is easily the leading buyer in Africa taking almost 18,000 tonnes in 2008, followed by the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya with some 12,000 tonnes and, some way behind, Liberia (3,800 tonnes) Gambia (2,700 tonnes), Sierra Leone (2,500 tonnes) and Swaziland (2,400 tonnes). Unfortunately, the trade data does not provide a breakdown of these totals to enable the main suppliers to be identified.

Biggest buyers of shell eggs in Oceania are Samoa and Fiji. The data for Australia is misleading as Australian quarantine protocols allow only imports of processed egg products, hence the figures on shell egg imports will not be for human consumption but more likely, for hatching or research purposes.

Exports of dried eggs have been tiny from both Africa and Oceania since 2005.

The picture for dried egg imports differs only a little, with the total for Africa in 2008 amounting to 1,734 tonnes, the corresponding figure for Oceania being 917 tonnes. To put these two figures into perspective, some 58,000 tonnes of dried egg products are traded worldwide.

Exports of liquid egg from these two regions are small, the combined total amounting to little more than 600 tonnes in 2008.

The story on liquid egg imports is similar, the total for both regions amounting to less than 1,500 tonnes.

-

You can view other articles in our series Global Poultry Trends by clicking here.

June 2011