Egg Industry Fact Sheet
Revised February/2004
·Per capita consumption is a measure of total egg production divided by the total population.
It does not represent demand. (USDA has recently adjusted data to reflect 2000 Census figures.)
1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003
234.6 233.5* 235.6 249.8 252.8 254.1
1994 1996 1998 2000 2002
236.4 234.6 239.7 251.7 253.5
·*In 1995, there was a reduction in consumption due to the decrease in bird numbers as a result of extreme heat and weather conditions.
·The high point for per capita egg consumption was 402 eggs in 1945. Per capita consumption had been steadily declining due to life style changes with more women working and to health concerns. Per capita consumption reached its lowest in 1991, but has steadily increased as the good news about eggs and cholesterol reached consumers.
·Currently, the top ten egg producing states (ranked by number of layers represented in thousands) are:
1) Iowa (40,250), 2) Ohio (27,837), 3) Indiana (22,686), 4) Pennsylvania (21,743), 5) California (20,370), 6) Texas (14,185), 7) Nebraska (11,668), 8) Georgia (11,531), 9) Florida (10,470), Minnesota (10,410).
·The five largest egg producing states represent approximately 50% of all U.S. layers.
·U.S egg production during December 2003 was 6.48 billion table class=article14 eggs.
Total U.S. egg production during 2003 was 73.93 billion table class=article14 eggs.
• Presently, there are 65 egg producing companies with 1 million plus layers and 9 companies with greater than 5 million layers.**
·To date, there are approximately 260 egg producing companies with flocks of 75,000 hens or more. These 260 companies represent about 95% of all the layers in the U.S.** Sixteen years ago (1987), there were around 2,500 operations.** (Number of operations in 1987 include some contract farms and divisions.)
·In 2003, the average number of egg-type laying hens in the U.S. was 276.1 million. Flock size for
January 1, 2004 was 280 million layers, an increase of 1.0 million from the same date a year earlier. Rate of lay per day on January 1, 2004 averaged 71.0 eggs per 100 layers, up 2 percent from a year ago.
·Of the 206.9 million cases of shell eggs produced in 2003:
·60.9 million cases were further processed (for foodservice, manufacturing, retail & export);
·125.8 million cases (60.87%) went to retail;
·18.6 million cases (9.4%) went for foodservice use; and
·1.6 million cases ( 0.8%) were exported.
·During the first eleven months 2003, the U.S. exported 38.5 million dozen table class=article14 eggs with a value of $24.3 million. Top markets included Canada, Hong Kong and the EU. During the period, Canada imported 13 million dozen table class=article14 eggs with a value of $10.9 million. Exports to Hong Kong totaled 14.4 million dozen with a value of $7 million. Exports of US table class=article14 eggs to EU increased by 476% in volume during the past eleven months of 2003. One reason for this major increase is due to the disease outbraks in the EU during the spring months of last year.
·Egg product exports during January through November of 2003 increased in value by 7% to $82.6 million compared to the same period in 2002. Canada remained the largest market for US egg products, importing about $29.5 million. Japan followed with imports of $20 million, and the EU with value of $16 million.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, **American Egg Board, ***USAPEEC