Director of the Institute of Spatial Analysis and Planning in Areas of Intensive Agriculture (ISPA),
University of Vechta, Germany
*If not indicated, figures are for EU (27); data are calculated as if new member countries had already been members in years before entering the EU.
Introduction
The EU is the second largest egg production region after China with a share of about 11 % of the global production volume. This region is dominating trade with shell eggs. EU member countries contribute about 60 % to global egg exports and imports. The Netherlands are the leading egg exporting country, France and Germany are in leading positions regarding egg imports.
The main objectives of this analysis are:
- to analyse the development of egg production between 2002 and 2007;
- to analyse the patterns of egg exports and imports for the main egg exporting and importing EU member countries in 2002 and 2007;
- to give an overview about the trade with egg products in 2007.
Development and patterns of EU egg production
Egg production in the EU fluctuated considerably between 2002 and 2007 as can be seen from Table 1. This is mainly due to the EU enlargement and the resulting socio-economic adaption processes in the new member countries. As global egg production, especially in threshold and less developed countries, grew much faster, the contribution of the EU (27) to the global production volume decreased from 12.4 % to 10.6 %.
In the analysed time period, the contribution of the USA to global egg production also decreased whereas China could strengthen its position (Table 2).
Whereas the per capita consumption of eggs in the EU fluctuated considerably in the analysed time period, the self-sufficiency rate was fairly stable as can be seen from the data in Table 3. The ups and downs are as well a consequence of the enlargement of the EU and resulting socio-economic processes in these countries as of a decreasing consumption in several EU (15) member countries.
Between 2002 and 2007, the regional concentration of egg production in the EU increased from 72.8 % to 73.5 %. The composition of the seven leading egg producing countries did not change in the analysed time period. This is not true, however, for the ranking. In 2002, France was in a leading position followed by Spain and Germany. These three countries contributed 36.9 % to the production volume of the EU. Five years later, the ranking had changed, Spain ranked as number one, followed by France and Germany; together they had a share of 38.3 %. With the exception of Spain and Poland, all other top egg producing countries showed a decreasing production. In the United Kingdom, egg production decreased by 121,000 t, in Germany by 81,000 t. The dramatic reduction of the production volume in these two countries is a result of the decision of several food chains in the United Kingdom not to list cage eggs any longer, and an animal protection act in Germany which prohibits conventional cages already from 2009 on.
Changing patterns in EU egg trade
As was already mentioned, EU member countries are in leading positions in egg exports and egg imports. Intra-EU egg trade is also dominated by only a few countries with a high respectively low self-sufficiency rate (Table 5). The rate has to be seen in connection with the population. Countries with a large population and a low self-sufficiency rate, such as Germany, France and the United Kingdom, have to import many more eggs than those with a small population and are therefore an attractive market for countries with an egg surplus.
As can be seen from Table 6, the seven leading exporting countries contributed almost 90 % to the export volume of EU member countries. The Netherlands and Spain ranked as number 1 and 2 with a share of 53.4 %, followed by Poland and Germany. It is worth mentioning that Germany is a major egg exporting country in spite of the low self-sufficiency rate. Besides shell eggs for direct consumption large amounts of eggs for further processing are exported, mainly to the Netherlands.
In 2007, Germany was the leading egg importing country not only in the EU but also on the global level; followed by France. These two countries had a share of 55.1 % of the import volume in the EU. The Netherlands, ranked on third place, are mainly importing eggs for further processing. The high capacity of its egg products plants cannot be met by domestic production.
In a further step, trade flows will be analysed in more detail for the leading egg exporting and importing countries.
In 2007, the Netherlands exported more than 5 billion shell eggs for consumption. For several years, the leading country of destination has been Germany. In 2007, 3.6 billion eggs or 71.8 % of the total volume were exported to this country. Table 8 shows that over 85 % of the exports had another EU member country as their destination. About 15 % were exported to non-EU countries, with Switzerland in a leading position.
In 2007, France imported over 196,240 t of shell eggs for consumption. The regional concentration of the imports is very high, as the two leading countries of origin, Belgium and Spain, contributed over 95 % to the import volume. Quite obviously, distance is playing an important role in addition to price.
Almost 77 % of the 5 billion shell eggs which Germany imported in 2007 came from the Netherlands. Between these two countries long-lasting trade relations have been developed over the past decades (Table 9). The self-sufficiency rate in Germany has been declining for several years, as small farmers gave up egg production because of lasting low prices and increasing production costs. At the same time it was almost impossible to build new large layer farms which would have been able to compensate for the reduction of layer flocks because of a strong opposition of animal welfare groups against such units (Table 10). In addition, vertically integrated egg companies and large egg farmers hesitated to invest in new farms or in enriched cages (in Germany: Kleingruppenhaltung)1 because of a pending act regarding the forms of keeping laying hens that would be permitted from 2009 on.
1This is a particular type of an enriched cage which gives the laying hens more space than demanded in the EU directive. One unit of such a system holds between 30 and 60 layers.
Patterns of EU egg products trade
In contrast to shell egg production and trade, data on the volume of egg products and of trade with liquid, frozen and dried egg products are hardly available. In this analysis, data as published by ZMP (2008) will be used for a short overview.
Table 11 shows that in 2007 about 250,000 t of liquid, frozen and dried egg products were imported by EU member countries. Germany was in a leading position with an import volume of 65,137 t, followed by the United Kingdom and France. All countries imported more liquid and frozen egg products than egg powder. This is due to the fact that liquid egg products cannot be transported over long distances. The import volume from non-EU countries into the EU is limited in order to protect the EU egg products industry.
In 2007, about 249,000 t of egg products were exported. The Netherlands contributed 100,561 t or 40.4 % to the total export volume, followed by France and Spain (Table 12). In addition to the exports to other EU member countries, about 23,000 t of egg products were destined to non-EU countries. Here, the difference between liquid and dried products was much smaller. About 12,300 t of dried egg products and 10,600 t of liquid and frozen egg products were exported.
Perspectives
The future of egg production and egg trade in the EU will depend on the control of highly infectious poultry diseases, the development of feed costs and the impacts of the banning of conventional cages from 2012 on. The implementation of the EU directive will make the EU to an egg deficit region and will have far reaching impacts on trade with shell eggs for consumption and with egg products (see Windhorst 2007, 2008).
Of particular interest will be the development in Germany as conventional cages are prohibited in this country already from 2009 on (see Windhorst 2001, 2004). As Germany is one of the leading egg importing countries, a reduction of the layer flocks will have far reaching impacts not only on the intra-EU trade but also with non-EU countries. Pessimistic estimates expect a decrease of the layer population by 30 % or between 10 and 12 mill. birds. This perspective results from recent announcements of several food chains not to list eggs produced in Kleingruppenhaltungen (see footnote 1). If the food chains stay to their decision, the leading egg producing companies will be forced to switch to barn or free range systems, except for those eggs which will be further processed to liquid, frozen or dried egg products. Such a decision would result in an additional deficit of up to 3 billion eggs in Germany. It is a still open question from which countries they can be imported as the egg surplus in the EU is much smaller and will no longer be existing from 2012 on when all countries will have to install enriched cages or switch to barn respectively free range systems.
Summary
The main results of this analysis can be summarised as follows:
- Between 2002 and 2007, EU egg production decreased from 7.4 to 7.2 million t or by 2.5 %.
- As global egg production grew faster in the analysed time period, the contribution of the EU to the global production volume decreased from 12.4 % to 10.6 %.
- The self-sufficiency rate remained fairly stable over the analysed time period.
- The contribution of the seven leading egg producing countries increased from 72.8 % to 73.5 % between 2002 and 2007.
- EU member countries are dominating world egg trade with a share of about 60 %.
- The Netherlands and Spain are the leading egg exporting countries in the EU, Germany and France the top ranked egg importing countries.
- The Netherlands are the dominating egg products exporting country, Germany is in a top position regarding egg products imports.
- The future of egg production and trade in the EU will depend on the control of highly infectious diseases, the development of feed costs, and the impacts of banning conventional cages.
References
Windhorst, H.-W.: Is there a future for Europe´s egg industry? In: Poultry International 40 (2001), no. 7, p. 26-32.
Windhorst, H.-W.: Will Germany ban cages in 2007? In: Zootecnica 26 (2004), no. 4, p. 18-29.
Windhorst, H.-W.: Bio-energy production - a threat to the global egg industry? In: World´s Poultry Science Journal 63 (2007), p. 365-379.
Windhorst, H.-W.: A Projection of the Regional Development of Egg production until 2015. (= IEC Special Report April 2008). London 2008. 19 p.
Zentrale Markt- und Preisberichtstelle (ZMP, ed.): Marktbilanz 2008: Eier und Gefluegel. Bonn 2008.
