The total exported from African countries in 2011, at 7,442 tonnes (Table 1) represented less than 0.5 per cent of world trade, whereas shipments from countries in Oceania at some 3,654 tonnes amounted to only 0.2 per cent.

Table 1. Hen egg exports in shell from countries in Africa and Oceania (tonnes)
Country	2000	2005	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Botswana	0	0	0	1	55	305	210
Congo	0	106	0	0	0	0	0
Egypt	58	2,191	17	9	58	0	496
Ethiopia	0	232	137	179	5	3	0
Kenya	31	78	42	27	71	525	550
Malawi	0	3	367	735	268	80	138
Morocco	1	7	0	58	48	1,750	937
Senegal	0	143	96	61	16	10	25
South Africa	2,862	382	477	1,176	3,974	5,731	2,592
Swaziland	73	125	579	579	579	579	579
Uganda	2	130	0	74	71	1,139	69
Zambia	158	109	533	611	899	779	795
Zimbabwe	2,726	2,966	1,438	2,174	562	290	839
AFRICA	6,155	6,515	3,716	5,742	6,644	11,411	7,442
Australia	129	85	90	172	165	74	385
Fiji	34	30	2	853	516	1,048	830
New Zealand	687	703	922	861	3,071	3,646	2,439
OCEANIA	852	818	1,014	1,886	3,752	4,768	3,654
WORLD	944,793	1,111,230	1,414,784	1,674,065	1,765,121	2,021,225	1,809,404
Countries failing to export more than 100 tonnes in at least one year have been excluded. Source: FAO

African Shell Egg Trade Stable

Quantities exported from African countries have shown little movement over the past decade or so, the relatively large rise in 2010 being primarily due to increased sales from South Africa, Morocco and Uganda.

In that year, South Africa sold 2,100 tonnes to Mozambique compared with 577 tonnes in 2009. Mauritania took 1,490 tonnes from Morocco, while Uganda sold 650 tonnes to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

However, in 2011 South Africa’s exports were more than halved as trade with Zimbabwe plunged from 2,440 tonnes to a mere 216 tonnes. For 2012, South Africa’s shell egg exports are considered to have fallen again.

There is no breakdown of sales from Morocco, while exports from Zimbabwe have declined sharply when compared with 2005. Zimbabwe’s leading customers in 2011 were Mozambique (254 tonnes), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (191 tonnes) and Botswana (144 tonnes).

Sales from Zambia have trended upwards to around 800 tonnes in 2011, of which some 686 tonnes were bought by the United Republic of Tanzania.

New Zealand Tops Oceania's Egg Exporters

In Oceania, New Zealand is the leading exporter shipping almost 2,439 tonnes of shell eggs in 2011, the main purchasers being Papua New Guinea (738 tonnes), New Caledonia (536 tonnes), Fiji (391 tonnes) and the Solomon Islands (235 tonnes).

In this region, Fiji is a sizeable exporter and of the 830 tonnes sold in 2011 almost 630 tonnes went to Samoa.

Less Than Four Per Cent of World Shell Egg Exports Go to Africa

Africa’s imports of shell eggs (Table 2) represent about 3.5 per cent of the world trade, as in 2011 imports increased to 63,400 tonnes.

More than 60 per cent of this business was conducted by just three countries – Angola taking 25,238 tonnes, Liberia 7,670 tonnes and Libya 5,645 tonnes. The main reasons for the increase in the total over 2010 was a rise of almost 6,200 tonnes in purchases by Angola and nearly 4,200 tonnes by Liberia. While Liberia’s purchases have expanded, Libya has become less active in this market.

Table 2. Hen egg imports in shell into countries in Africa and Oceania (tonnes)
Country	2000	2005	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Algeria	3,152	569	157	332	999	450	461
Angola	6,600	14,717	14,039	17,963	15,006	19,046	25,238
Benin	0	576	0	3	42	42	20
Botswana	698	319	733	896	595	994	760
Cabo Verde	139	33	87	175	153	81	240
Congo	1,067	1,612	1,122	844	1,051	1,042	2,353
Cote d'Ivoire	75	254	220	240	190	159	134
Dem. Rep. Congo	230	3,203	1,475	383	466	1,590	2,068
Djibouti	210	479	353	416	185	224	389
Egypt	13	18	0	0	1,504	20	0
Equatorial Guinea	20	529	830	570	788	1,694	1,917
Gambia	368	1,696	2,334	2,692	233	311	331
Ghana	169	107	51	45	20	36	84
Guinea	2	328	81	82	82	53	123
Kenya	54	185	188	62	26	7	631
Lesotho	120	160	180	180	180	180	180
Liberia	1,500	5,290	1,862	3,816	3,218	3,801	7,670
Libya	3,100	4,388	11,977	11,977	8,539	9,084	5,645
Malawi	190	695	129	106	21	52	56
Mauritania	458	1,840	1,362	489	565	1,061	1,542
Morocco	740	0	0	0	68	78	78
Mozambique	1,000	358	388	1,198	1,397	2,239	2,255
Namibia	1,328	0	0	0	0	0	0
Niger	47	44	1	25	25	118	73
Nigeria	0	248	4	7	7	212	412
Rwanda	0	0	0	0	213	825	1,169
Senegal	159	606	969	931	1,093	1,064	1,196
Seychelles	83	91	111	90	74	68	64
Sierra Leone	1,800	890	1,134	2,509	2,032	1,846	2,195
South Africa	16	722	716	443	12	4	3
Sudan	242	511	1,055	876	1,008	1,076	1,295
Swaziland	957	596	2,408	2,408	2,408	2,408	2,408
Tunisia	226	252	408	44	114	705	311
United Rep. Tanzania	594	146	353	116	371	462	1,183
Zambia	66	136	6,041	14	3	63	1
Zimbabwe	4	8	0	11	3,115	2,825	519
AFRICA	25,712	41,817	50,968	50,206	46,052	54,357	63,408
American Samoa	150	0	0	0	0	0	0
Australia	26	568	134	416	1,010	823	686
Fiji	391	232	405	236	128	228	72
Kiribati	10	11	100	100	100	100	0
New Caledonia	40	40	60	185	263	193	389
New Zealand	2	7	151	19	58	76	120
Samoa	0	452	382	500	600	1,092	243
Solomon Isl.	40	42	127	45	63	74	229
OCEANIA	674	1,533	1,535	1,709	2,388	2,821	1,831
WORLD	886,023	1,093,651	1,468,005	1,580,962	1,627,866	1,681,751	1,681,176
Countries failing to import more than 100 tonnes in at least one year have been excluded. Source: FAO

Shell Egg Imports to Oceania Minimal

Imports into Oceania are miniscule amounting to less than 2,000 tonnes a year. Most are bought by Australia which does not permit imports of table eggs, imports being restricted to hatching eggs or eggs for pharmaceutical purposes.

Trade in Dried Egg

Only small quantities of dried egg are exported from Africa. It should be noted that the FAO data shown in Tables 3 and 4 do not include the trade in dried albumen.

In 2011, some 122 tonnes of Egypt’s exports went to Saudi Arabia, while Mozambique was the only customer for South Africa’s exports of 283 tonnes in 2011, though the total sold from South Africa in 2012 looks to have contracted to some 173 tonnes.

Table 3. Exports of dried egg* from countries in Africa and Oceania (tonnes)
Country	2000	2005	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Egypt	0	0	0	0	169	169	153
Ethiopia	0	0	0	0	17	7	0
Gambia	0	0	0	27	0	0	0
South Africa	0	5	1	2	0	12	283
AFRICA	13	12	4	44	199	197	437
OCEANIA	5	2	1	2	2	2	1
WORLD	29,412	47,578	54,735	57,614	57,074	55,800	59,534
Countries failing to import more than 100 tonnes in at least one year have been excluded. *The trade in albumen is not included. Source: FAO

African countries are a little more active in the trade in imported dried egg. Although total purchases into the region in 2011 were roughly treble the 2000 level, the quantities bought since 2005 have fluctuated between 1,000 and 1,700 tonnes. Biggest buyer in 2011 was Egypt with 363 tonnes, the bulk (197 tonnes) of which came from the Ukraine.

Mauritania imported 357 tonnes, purchases being primarily divided between Brazil (166 tonnes) and the Netherlands (137 tonnes).

Tunisia received just over 200 tonnes, with 115 tonnes coming from Denmark and 80 tonnes from France.

Table 4. Imports of dried egg* into countries in Africa and Oceania (tonnes)
Country	2000	2005	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Algeria	20	31	24	0	0	1	16
Botswana	1	1	33	7	0	0	0
Congo	0	0	0	0	28	28	28
Cote d'Ivoire	40	11	31	35	16	21	21
Egypt	68	221	87	89	259	172	363
Gambia	52	86	419	625	103	201	95
Madagascar	0	6	7	5	6	10	24
Mauritania	0	9	79	570	2	30	357
Morocco	22	32	57	53	93	63	62
Namibia	40	11	11	11	11	11	0
Nigeria	1	20	2	1	1	10	10
South Africa	0	0	40	21	54	42	104
Sudan (former)	0	3	1	42	166	85	44
Swaziland	115	631	110	110	110	110	110
Tunisia	141	272	254	131	109	144	201
AFRICA	513	1,343	1,170	1,721	975	937	1,455
Australia	238	221	674	767	366	711	582
New Caledonia	0	4	4	2	3	12	12
New Zealand	71	90	155	148	124	119	123
OCEANIA	314	315	833	917	493	842	717
WORLD	34,244	53,613	60,850	55,672	53,671	59,408	59,732
Countries failing to import more than 100 tonnes in at least one year have been excluded. *The trade in albumen is not included. Source: FAO

During 2011, Australia imported 582 tonnes of dried egg, of which 404 tonnes came from Denmark, while Canada and the US supplied 107 tonnes and 71 tonnes, respectively.

New Zealand’s imports of 123 tonnes in 2011 came from Canada (79 tonnes) and the US (42 tonnes).

Trade in Liquid Egg

As with dried egg, the quantities of liquid egg traded by countries in Africa and Oceania are small. Of the 1,000 tonnes marketed in 2011 (Table 5), South Africa accounted for 652 tonnes, as Mozambique took 566 tonnes and Angola 85 tonnes. However, in 2012 South Africa’s dried egg exports totalled around 1,670 tonnes.

The only other major exporter of liquid egg was Egypt with 261 tonnes, shipments of 140 tonnes being made to Saudi Arabia, while Libya and Jordan took 70 tonnes and 50 tonnes, respectively.

Australia with 371 tonnes (Table 5) accounted for almost 79 per cent of Oceania’s liquid egg exports in 2011, with some 291 tonnes being bought by Thailand. In 2012, Australia exported nearly 300 tonnes.

Table 5. Exports of liquid egg from countries in Africa and Oceania (tonnes)
Country	2000	2005	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Egypt	0	0	0	0	82	375	261
Gambia	0	0	0	0	0	0	22
Kenya	1	0	11	4	0	2	2
Malawi	0	0	0	0	10	7	7
Namibia	2	19	19	19	19	19	19
Senegal	0	0	7	36	1	4	0
South Africa	532	167	10	8	99	129	652
Uganda	0	1	0	34	1	106	33
Zambia	0	0	0	0	44	0	0
Zimbabwe	13	160	62	20	20	0	0
AFRICA	552	348	139	130	269	650	1,006
Australia	685	468	228	237	400	210	371
Fiji	1	20	460	57	20	6	15
New Zealand	55	231	125	178	202	293	87
OCEANIA	741	719	813	472	622	509	473
WORLD	144,190	194,078	217,255	235,998	266,462	272,639	313,984
Countries failing to import more than 100 tonnes in at least one year have been excluded. Source: FAO

On the import side (Table 6) the quantities traded are similar to the picture for exports. In 2011, nearly 1,400 tonnes of liquid egg were imported into African countries. Egypt was the biggest buyer taking 822 tonnes, of which 360 tonnes were supplied by Greece and 285 tonnes by the Netherlands, while 130 tonnes came from the US.

Mauritania bought nearly 190 tonnes of liquid egg with the Netherlands (109 tonnes) the main supplier.

Australia accounts for nearly all of this business in Oceania, purchases in 2011 amounting to 384 tonnes the bulk coming from Thailand (156 tonnes), New Zealand (85 tonnes) and Taiwan (83 tonnes).

Table 6. Imports of liquid egg into countries in Africa and Oceania (tonnes)
Country	2000	2005	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Algeria	11	3	4	4	7	3	3
Botswana	152	180	78	10	17	0	5
Cabo Verde	0	1	3	6	9	35	20
Congo	0	52	0	0	0	0	0
Cote d'Ivoire	0	0	0	0	21	32	0
Dem. Rep. Congo	1	0	11	340	49	98	24
Egypt	0	168	0	0	80	676	822
Gabon	20	0	0	0	0	0	0
Gambia	26	48	524	425	147	212	45
Kenya	0	14	6	0	1	0	8
Madagascar	1	0	2	1	1	44	16
Mauritania	0	42	68	355	0	31	188
Mauritius	13	4	1	0	0	0	1
Morocco	1	34	16	3	0	1	1
Namibia	72	54	54	54	54	54	54
Niger	16	35	0	0	0	0	0
Nigeria	10	10	0	0	0	8	14
Senegal	0	16	39	34	19	13	18
South Africa	2	180	80	37	0	1	1
Swaziland	704	1,239	82	82	82	82	82
Togo	1	34	19	19	5	0	0
United Rep. Tanzania	5	2	5	8	3	26	17
AFRICA	1,037	2,123	1,004	1,385	554	1,326	1,369
Australia	92	414	345	305	377	425	384
Fiji	305	2	3	1	8	10	2
French Polynesia	0	8	18	11	62	25	10
New Caledonia	3	0	16	7	18	0	0
New Zealand	4	0	0	0	5	34	16
Tonga	0	11	0	0	0	0	0
OCEANIA	405	439	384	326	472	496	414
WORLD	124,335	189,368	215,287	230,369	249,486	270,486	271,809
Countries failing to import more than 100 tonnes in at least one year have been excluded. Source: FAO

April 2014