# Where do eggs come from?

Source: Commodity Origins, https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/eggs/ — data JSON: https://commodityorigins.com/data/commodities/eggs.json — license CC BY 4.0 (upstream data keeps its license; see Sources below).

Eggs come mainly from China, which produced 30.9 million tonnes in 2024, 35% of the world's 89.3 million tonnes (FAOSTAT). India (9.1%), Indonesia (7.4%) and United States (7.2%) follow; the top five together supply 62%. The biggest exporter of eggs (HS 0407) is the Netherlands (17% of world export value in 2024, CEPII BACI). Eggs are laid close to where they are eaten because a shell egg is fragile, perishable and mostly water, so the largest producers are simply the largest populations with the grain to feed a laying flock.

*Hen eggs in shell, produced close to where they are eaten because they are fragile and perishable.* Also called: hen eggs, chicken eggs, shell eggs, table eggs.

## Where do eggs come from?

| Rank | Country | Production 2024 (tonnes) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | 30.9 million | 35% |
| 2 | India | 8.1 million | 9.1% |
| 3 | Indonesia | 6.6 million | 7.4% |
| 4 | United States | 6.5 million | 7.2% |
| 5 | Brazil | 3.7 million | 4.1% |
| 6 | Mexico | 3.3 million | 3.7% |
| 7 | Russia | 2.6 million | 2.9% |
| 8 | Japan | 2.5 million | 2.8% |
| 9 | Turkey (Türkiye) | 1.3 million | 1.5% |
| 10 | Pakistan | 1.2 million | 1.3% |
| | Rest of world | 0 | 25% |
| | World | 89.3 million | 100% |

Source: FAOSTAT Crops and livestock products (QCL), 2024.

In 2024 China produced 30.9 million tonnes, 35% of the world's 89.3 million tonnes (FAOSTAT). India followed with 9.1%, then Indonesia (7.4%), United States (7.2%) and Brazil (4.1%). The top five account for 62%, 172 countries reported output and 25% came from outside the top ten. World production changed +27% over the ten years to 2024 and +1% on the previous year.

The producer list is close to a list of populations, because egg production follows people and feed rather than climate. A modern laying house is enclosed and climate-controlled, and the same hybrid layer genetics and similar feed formulations are used from Java to Iowa, so latitude sets little.

Two industries share the word. Table eggs are laid for eating; hatching eggs are laid to become broiler chicks and never reach a shop. The series here counts hen eggs in shell, so duck and quail eggs, which matter in parts of Asia, sit outside it.


## Who exports and imports eggs?

### Exporters of birds’ eggs, in shell, fresh, preserved or cooked (HS 0407), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Netherlands | $992.8 million | 17% |
| 2 | United States | $616.4 million | 10% |
| 3 | Poland | $484.9 million | 8.2% |
| 4 | Turkey (Türkiye) | $479.5 million | 8.1% |
| 5 | Germany | $353 million | 6% |
| 6 | China | $288.7 million | 4.9% |
| 7 | Belgium | $284.9 million | 4.8% |
| 8 | Spain | $218 million | 3.7% |
| 9 | France | $191.9 million | 3.3% |
| 10 | United Kingdom | $147.5 million | 2.5% |
| 11 | Brazil | $145 million | 2.5% |
| 12 | Malaysia | $123.4 million | 2.1% |
| 13 | India | $108 million | 1.8% |
| 14 | Czechia | $91.6 million | 1.6% |
| 15 | Ukraine | $89.4 million | 1.5% |

### Importers of birds’ eggs, in shell, fresh, preserved or cooked (HS 0407), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Germany | $811.1 million | 14% |
| 2 | Netherlands | $451 million | 7.6% |
| 3 | Hong Kong | $301.2 million | 5.1% |
| 4 | Iraq | $235 million | 4% |
| 5 | Russia | $231.7 million | 3.9% |
| 6 | Canada | $220 million | 3.7% |
| 7 | Belgium | $209.5 million | 3.6% |
| 8 | France | $202.4 million | 3.4% |
| 9 | Mexico | $194.8 million | 3.3% |
| 10 | Singapore | $186.5 million | 3.2% |
| 11 | United Arab Emirates | $160 million | 2.7% |
| 12 | United Kingdom | $147.5 million | 2.5% |
| 13 | Spain | $113.3 million | 1.9% |
| 14 | Saudi Arabia | $101.2 million | 1.7% |
| 15 | Italy | $99.2 million | 1.7% |

Source: CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601).

Netherlands was the largest exporter of eggs (HS 0407) in 2024 with 17% of world export value, ahead of United States (10%), on world trade of $5.9 billion (CEPII BACI). Germany was the largest importer with 14%.

Trade is small against production, and it is regional rather than global. Eggs are bulky, fragile and short-lived, so they move by road between neighbors more readily than by sea between continents: Dutch and Polish eggs into Germany, Turkish eggs into the Middle East. Part of the flow is hatching eggs shipped to stock broiler farms, which is trade in future chickens rather than breakfast.

Because the traded share is thin, it responds violently to disease. A country that loses a large part of its laying flock bids for eggs abroad and appears high in the import table for a season, then drops out once its own hens are laying again.


## What do eggs cost?

### How they are priced

There is no futures market in eggs and no free public benchmark price carried on this site, so none is quoted here. Eggs are sold on weekly negotiated wholesale quotations and on retail supply contracts that are formula-priced off private market assessments, with cooperatives pooling members' output and paying an average. Housing system, egg weight, grade and pack format each carry their own price.

The visible references are government market reports in the main producing countries and the weekly average prices European member states report to the European Commission. Cage, barn, free-range and organic eggs trade at settled premiums to each other, so a single national egg price says less as the housing mix shifts, and retailers increasingly contract by system rather than by the egg.


## What moves the price of eggs?

### Avian influenza

An outbreak in a laying complex is followed by depopulation, and a replacement hen does not lay until roughly five months after the chick is placed. That lag turns one winter of losses into most of a year of reduced supply, which is why egg prices move faster on disease news than on feed.

### Feed cost

Grain and oilseed meal make up the largest part of the cost of producing an egg, so movements in corn and soybean meal reach the farm gate within months. Feed is bought locally, which is one reason egg prices differ between countries facing the same world grain market.

### Housing system rules

Cage bans and retailer commitments to cage-free supply force producers to rebuild sheds at lower stocking density. The capital cost and the lost bird places raise the cost per egg, and the transition takes years, so rules announced long in advance still tighten supply when they bite.

### Flock cycle

Laying flocks are placed in batches and produce for about a year before being replaced or molted. Supply adjusts with a lag set by biology rather than by price, so producers who cut placements in a weak market create a shortage a year later.

### Short shelf life

Eggs cannot be stored for long or shipped far without loss, so a local shortage cannot be covered from another continent in the way a grain deficit can. Regional prices can diverge and stay apart, because the arbitrage that would close the gap does not physically work.

## How are eggs produced?

Layer chicks are reared in pullet houses for about four months, then moved into the laying house as they come into lay. A commercial hen lays close to an egg a day through a production cycle of roughly a year, after which she is replaced or molted to start a shorter second cycle.

Eggs roll onto collection belts and travel to a grading floor, where they are candled for cracks and blood spots, weighed into size classes and packed. Practice then splits. The United States washes eggs and requires refrigeration, which removes surface contamination along with the natural cuticle; the European Union leaves class A eggs unwashed at ambient temperature, on the argument that the cuticle is the better defense.

Eggs that fail grading or are produced for manufacture go to breaking plants, where they are cracked, separated, pasteurized and sold as liquid, frozen or dried whole egg, white or yolk.


## What are eggs used for?

Most eggs are eaten as eggs, at home or in food service. The next largest outlet is food manufacture, which buys egg in liquid, frozen or powdered form for mayonnaise and sauces, bakery, pasta and prepared meals, where the egg is bought for what it does rather than what it is: whites whip and set, yolks emulsify and color.

Shells are milled for calcium supplements and feed, spent hens enter processed meat and pet food, and surplus eggs go to fertilizer. Embryonated eggs are also the substrate on which much of the world's influenza vaccine is grown, which makes hatching egg supply a public health input as well as an agricultural one.


## Supply chain and chokepoints

The chain is short, local and rebuilt every year. Grandparent and parent stock produce day-old layer chicks, pullet rearers grow them out, and a packing center grades and boxes for retailers usually within the same country.

The concentration is upstream. A very small number of primary breeding companies supply the hybrid laying genetics used across most of the world, and their multiplication pyramids take years to expand, so the genetic base of egg supply is narrower than the number of farms suggests.

The chokepoints are biosecurity and pullets. A large complex can be emptied by one infection, and the queue for replacement birds is set by hatchery capacity booked months ahead. Feed mills and packing centers are the other weak points, because a laying flock cannot pause: hens eat and lay whether or not the eggs can be moved.


## Timeline

- 1999-07: The EU adopts its laying hens directive. Directive 1999/74/EC set minimum space and enrichment standards and put an end date on unenriched cages, committing the largest egg-importing bloc to rebuild its housing stock. (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:31999L0074)
- 2012-01: Conventional cages are banned in the European Union. The prohibition took effect on 1 January 2012, forcing producers into enriched cages, barns or free-range systems and raising the cost of an EU egg against imported egg products. (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:31999L0074)
- 2015: Avian influenza empties United States laying houses. More than 50 million birds were lost in the 2014 to 2015 outbreak, including 43 million egg layers, and egg output stayed about 10 percent below the prior year from May to December 2015. (https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/86663)
- 2017-07: Fipronil is found in European eggs. An unauthorized insecticide used against red mite on laying farms led to millions of eggs being withdrawn across the EU and showed how fast a single service contractor can contaminate a national flock. (https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/press/news/180503)
- 2018-11: California voters pass Proposition 12. The measure set cage-free requirements for eggs sold in the state regardless of where they were laid, extending housing rules to producers in other states and countries. (https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/AHFSS/AnimalCare/)
- 2022: H5N1 becomes endemic in wild birds across continents. Year-round infection pressure from migratory birds replaced the old seasonal pattern, making depopulation of laying flocks a recurring cost rather than a rare shock. (https://www.woah.org/en/disease/avian-influenza/)

## Frequently asked questions

### which country produces the most eggs

China produced 30.9 million tonnes in 2024, 35% of the world's 89.3 million tonnes (FAOSTAT). India was second with 9.1%. The ranking follows population and feed supply, because eggs are produced close to the people who eat them. Output was reported by 172 countries, and the top five accounted for 62%.

### why are eggs so expensive

Usually because a laying flock has been lost to avian influenza and cannot be replaced quickly: a hen starts laying about five months after the chick is placed. Feed cost is the other lever, since grain and oilseed meal are the largest input, and cage-free housing rules raise the cost per egg.

### why are eggs not refrigerated in europe

Because class A eggs there are not washed. Washing removes the cuticle that seals the shell, so the United States washes and then requires refrigeration, while the European Union leaves the cuticle intact and keeps eggs at ambient temperature. Both systems work; mixing them does not.

### why is so little egg traded internationally

Because shell eggs are fragile, perishable and mostly water, so they travel badly and cheaply lose their value. World exports were $5.9 billion in 2024 (CEPII BACI), and most of that moved between neighboring countries by road rather than between continents.

### what does cage-free actually mean

That hens are not kept in cages, but not that they go outside. Barn and aviary systems house birds indoors at lower density with perches and nest boxes; free-range adds outdoor access. The EU banned unenriched cages from January 2012, and California required cage-free eggs under Proposition 12, passed in November 2018.

### who imports the most eggs

Germany, with 14% of world import value in 2024 (CEPII BACI). Import rankings move around more than production rankings, because countries that lose flocks to disease buy heavily for a season and then withdraw once their own hens are laying again.

## Sources

- FAOSTAT Crops and livestock products (QCL), 2024. License: CC BY 4.0 (FAO Statistical Database Terms of Use). https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL
- CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601), BACI HS22 V202601, fetched 6 September 2026. License: Etalab Open Licence 2.0. https://www.cepii.fr/CEPII/en/bdd_modele/bdd_modele_item.asp?id=37

Text last reviewed 2026-09-05. Cite as: Commodity Origins, "Where do eggs come from?", https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/eggs/.