Compared with the previous year, the citizens of Germany ate an average of three more eggs in 2016, according to preliminary data from the Federal Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (BLE). This puts annual consumption per capita at 235 eggs, and total egg consumption two percent higher than the year before at 19.3 billion eggs.
As recently as 2011, the country’s egg intake averaged just 217 eggs.
BLE estimates the number of laying hens in Germany in 2016 at 45.1 million, which represents an increase of around 300,000 or 0.7 percent from 2015.
The laying rate also increased by 0.7 percent from the previous year, with each bird producing an average of 290 eggs in 2016. With hen numbers and laying rate each up by 0.7 percent, overall egg production rose 1.3 percent to 14.2 billion eggs.
Of this total, 3.60 billion eggs produced in Germany were exported in shell or as egg products, compared with 3.16 billion in 2015. This continues a general upward trend in exports since 2010, and sets a new record, according to the BLE.
To meet the strong growth in domestic demand, Germany imported the equivalent of 9.64 billion eggs (as shell eggs or products) in 2016 – an increase of 6.6 percent from the previous year.
These production and trade figures put the level of self-sufficiency in egg production in Germany at 70.1 percent in 2016, down slightly from the previous year.
