Section 6: Trade in dried egg trebles

• World trade in shell, liquid and dried eggs

For several years now it has been evident that the growth in the global egg trade has been in the products rather than the shell sector and the latest figures we have for 2005 indicate that this trend is continuing.

The sector showing the most rapid expansion is the trade in dried eggs that has trebled since 1990 from around 18,000 tonnes a year to an estimated near 54,000t in 2005. While, like in the other sectors, Europe is the leading exporting and also importing region, the most dramatic feature to emerge from the data has been a near ten-fold increase in exports from Asia to almost 10,000t in 2005, of which, nearly 80% came from India.

Shell eggs less than 2% of trade

In contrast to the trade in poultrymeat where around 12% of production is exported, the world trade in shell eggs represents less than 2% of output.

The quantities of eggs in shell traded, although larger now than say 15 years ago, have shown little change around an annual average of some 1.1 million tonnes between 2002 and 2005. The import bans imposed on exporting countries that have been struck by outbreaks of avian influenza will have since distorted trading patterns somewhat, restricting sales from traditional exporting countries and forcing importers to look elsewhere for supplies.

In broad terms, two-thirds of shell egg imports are purchased by European countries, with Germany easily the main buyer. This country accounts for almost 40% of the total, followed by the Netherlands and France, each taking around 12%.

Looking at the export side, a similar picture emerges with Europe again accounting for around 65% of the business with the Netherlands the foremost shipper with 35% of the total. In recent years however, Spain has appeared as a key exporter and according to the provisional 2005 data, is in the number two spot with a 14% share of European exports followed by Germany and Belgium with shares of 13% and 10% respectively.

Asia emerges as exporting region

Another development in recent years has been the emergence of Asia as a shell-egg exporting region, annual sales having risen from just over 200,000t in 2000 to more than 310,000t in 2005. Here, Malaysia leads the field followed by China and India.

In contrast to the fairly static shell egg trade, the volume of liquid egg products is expanding annually.

The global trade in liquid eggs has almost doubled since 1990 from 110,000t to nearly 200,000t. As in the shell sector, Europe dominates this business accounting for 80% of exports and a similar proportion of imports. On the import side, purchases are spread more evenly than in the shell trade and while Germany is again the main buyer with around 30% of the European total followed by France with 15%, other significant customers (each taking more than 8,000t a year) are Belgium, the UK, Switzerland, Spain and Denmark.

The leading seller is again the Netherlands with 76,000t (49%) followed by Belgium, France and Spain, these four accounting for more than three-quarters of all European exports.