Egg Overview

Eggs, also known as chicken eggs and chickens, are eggs laid by hens. They have a hard shell on the outside and air chambers, egg whites and yolks inside. Eggs contain a lot of vitamins, minerals and high-value protein, which is one of the best sources of nutrition for human beings. Because of its rich nutrition, high feed conversion rate, less religious diet taboos and other characteristics, it has been widely accepted as a livestock product in the world.

Egg is the most important egg variety, accounting for 84% of the total egg production in China. According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the total output of poultry eggs in China in 2011 was 28.11 million tons. Based on this, it is estimated that the output of eggs in China in 2011 was about 23.61 million tons, accounting for 36% of the global total output, which has been ranking first in the world for 26 consecutive years.

Figure 1.1: Structure of Egg Production in China, 2011

Data source: Dongfang Aige

Egg products can be divided into unprocessed fresh eggs and egg products processed from fresh eggs. In all egg consumption, fresh egg consumption is more than 90%, accounting for the dominant position, and egg products consumption is less than 10%.

From the perspective of consumption structure, household consumption dominates. According to statistics, in 2010, 53% of the final consumption of fresh eggs in China was household consumption, 28% was outdoor consumption (including catering industry and enterprise canteen consumption), and 19% was industrial consumption (including cleaning eggs, food industry and deep processing).

Figure 1.2: Consumption Structure of Eggs in China, 2010

Data source: Dongfang Aige

China's egg market is mainly self-sufficient, with a small amount of exports. According to statistics, in 2011, China's egg export volume was 78000 tons, accounting for less than 8% of the total export volume of the top 20 countries and 0.3% of the domestic egg production.