World hen egg production (table and hatching) expanded by 14.1 million tonnes or 2.3 per cent per year from 51.1 million tonnes in 2000 to 65.2 million tonnes in 2011. After a disappointing 2012, growth appears to be well under way again such that in 2013 output could have come close to 67 million tonnes (Table 1 and Figure 1), while it will likely exceed 68 million tonnes in 2014. Hatching eggs are estimated to account for about five per cent of the total.

Sources: FAO to 2011; 2012 and 2013 author's estimates

Africa was the fastest growing region over the review period to 2011, recording a 3.5 per cent annual increase, followed by Oceania (3.0 per cent), Asia (2.6 per cent) and the Americas (2.1 per cent), while Europe returned the least rapid growth of just one per cent per year.

As a proportion of the global total, the share contributed by the Americas slipped a shade over the period from 20.5 to 20.3 per cent.

Back in 2000, the total number of layers was assessed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) at some 5,004 million, this figure rising to 6,617 million in 2011, of which 64 per cent were in Asia, 16 per cent in the Americas, nearly 12 per cent in Europe, eight per cent in Africa and 0.3 per cent in Oceania. The corresponding figures for 2000 were 61 per cent, 17 per cent, 14 per cent, 7.5 per cent and 0.4 per cent, respectively.

Figure 1. World hen egg production (million tonnes)

A closer look at the situation in the Americas (Tables 2 and 3) reveals that the largest three egg-producing countries - the US, Mexico and Brazil - accounted for some 9.9 million tonnes in 2011 or three-quarters of the regional total of 13.2 million tonnes.

The next four in the production ranking table - namely Columbia, Argentina, Canada and Peru - produced a further nearly 1.9 million tonnes or a little over 14 per cent. Thus, almost 90 per cent of the region’s production came from just seven countries.

Source FAO

The United States is the number one producer in the region, though growth between 2000 and 2011 averaged less than one per cent per year. The data presented in Table 4 includes hatching eggs, which represent around 12 per cent of the US total. According to data published by the International Egg Commission (IEC), table egg production (which excludes hatching eggs) in the US amounted to 4.82 million tonnes in 2012.

The USDA World Agricultural Supply and Demand (WASDE) estimates are given in number of eggs rather than tonnage. This organisation estimated table egg output in 2012 at 6816.4 million dozen, which would equate with a tonnage yield of around 4.9 million tonnes (based on an average egg weight of 60g). WASDE projected an increase of some 2.4 per cent for 2013 and a further 1.6 per cent in 2014 when table egg output is forecast to total 7,085 million dozen eggs.

Source FAO

The egg industry in Mexico appears to have expanded by almost three per cent per year during the review period as output rose to 2.46 million tonnes.

However, data published by the IEC points to a slightly higher figure for that year of 2.54 million tonnes, which was followed by a cut-back of around six per cent to 2.39 million tonnes as a consequence of the outbreaks of highly pathogenic H7N3 avian influenza, principally in the Jalisco state in the summer of 2012. This was countered by a vaccination programme accompanied by depopulation of some 25 million birds out of a total laying flock of possibly 150 million. By the spring of 2013, re-population of farms had been completed and output for that year is currently estimated at 2.3 million tonnes.

Source FAO to 2011; 2012 author's estimates

Egg production in Brazil has exhibited a near three per cent annual increase since 2000, having topped two million tonnes in 2011, though hatching eggs for the broiler sector could account for around 16 per cent of the FAO total.

National statistics frequently differ depending on the source. Figure 2 shows that FAO data for Argentina since 2008 have been amended to tie in with the figures published by the IEC. These point to higher production levels than the FAO, such that the 2011 figure of 721,000 tonnes, if correct, would put Argentina into fourth place in the production league table ahead of Columbia. For 2012 Argentina’s production is assessed at 733,000 tonnes.

Figure 2. Leading egg producers in the Americas (million tonnes)

Among the leading egg-producing countries in the region, with the exception of Peru, the industry in Columbia recorded the fastest growth of 4.7 per cent per year over the review period. Production in 2012 is considered to show little change over the previous year at around 640,000 tonnes.

Of the top seven countries, egg output in Canada recorded the slowest growth, with an annual average of just 1.5 per cent per year. As production is controlled under a supply-management system, any future growth is likely to be slow in order to maintain a sustainable profitable industry.

Fastest growing industry among this group was Peru, where production expanded by more than six per cent per year to 2011. However, since then, annual output appears to have stabilised somewhat at around 314,000 tonnes.

February 2014