Egg Industry Fact Sheet
Revised October 2011

• 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.)

• The five largest egg producing states represent approximately 50% of all U.S. layers.

• U.S. egg production during September 2011 was 6.49 billion table eggs, which is up from last September's 6.43 billion table eggs.

• Presently, there are 65 egg producing companies with 1 million plus layers and 14 companies with greater than 5 million layers.**

• To date, there are approximately 180 egg producing companies with flocks of 75,000 hens or more. These companies represent about 95% of all the layers in the United States.** In 1987, there were around 2,500 operations.** (Number of operations in 1987 include some contract farms and divisions.)

• For 2009-2010, cage-free production is 3.7 percent of the total U.S. flock size of 10.5 million birds. Of this, 1.8% is organic and 1.9% is other.

• In 2010, the average number of egg-type laying hens in the U.S. was 281 million. Flock size for October 1, 2011, was 281 million layers, decreasing from last year's 279. Rate of lay per day on October 1, 2011 averaged 74.6 eggs per 100 layers, up 1% from last year.

• Of the 218.14 million cases (estimated) of shell eggs produced in 2010: 68.9 million cases (31.6%) were further processed (for foodservice, manufacturing, retail and export); 124.9 million cases (57.3%) went on to retail; 17.45 million cases (8.0%) went for foodservices use; and 6.9 million (3.1%) were exported.

• Exports of processed egg products for January to September 2011 were $$91.847 million, up 6.1% from the same period a year earlier. Table eggs export volume increased 14.5% from January to Septemember 2010 to 59.396 million dozen, with an export value of $52.949 million, up 29.2%.

• Exports of processed egg products to Japan, the single largest importing country for U.S. egg products reached 48.543 million for for the first quarters of 2011, an increase of 59.1 from the same period a year earlier. Export value to Japan accounted for 52.9% of U.S. total export value worldwide. The second largest export market for processed egg products is the EU-27 region. Exports to the EU-27 were $17.061 million, down 36.5% from the same period in 2010. Other top markets for the first nine months of 2011 include Canada, in which exports were down 22.8% to $5.484 million, and South Korea which totaled $3.803 million, up 36.8% year on year. Exports to Southeast Asia region are growing significantly.

• Table egg exports to Hong Kong, the top market for U.S. table eggs, reached 27.272 million dozen for the first nine months of 2011, an increase of 29.3% from the same period a year earlier. Shipments to Canada were 11.984 million dozen, down 5.8% year on year. Exports to the United Arab Emirates were 7.523 million dozen, down 3.2% from the same period a year earlier. Combined exports to these top three markets were 46.779 million dozen, accounting for 78.8% of U.S. total shipments worldwide.