Each German citizen ate an average of 231 eggs weighing 14.4kg in 2014, according to the ministry of food and agriculture, BMEL.

Country-wide, that amounts to 18.7 billion eggs with a total weight of 1.16 million tonnes.

Household purchases of eggs in shell make up around half of the total. Around 63 per cent are from aviary systems, with 25 per cent free-range and 10 per cent organic.

Small colonies contribute only a negligible share nowadays, falling around 77 per cent since 2010. The number of organic eggs, on the other hand, has risen 40 per cent.

In 2014, Germany produced 854,000 tonnes of eggs in total, including hatching eggs.

Provisional figures from the federal office for agriculture, BLE, indicate production of 13.8 billion eggs in the country in 2014, 0.7 per cent more than in the previous year.

Last year, Germany imported 424,000 tonnes of eggs - 45 per cent more than in year 2000, when the figure was 293,000 tonnes.

Egg exports are also on the increase. In year 2000, the figure was 72,000 tonnes, which had risen to 123,000 tonnes in 2014 - an increase of more than 70 per cent over this period.