Eggs: Characteristics
Haugh units, shell strength and yolk colour: grading an egg
What this tab covers The supply and physical characteristics of the commodity. Supply: current production, inventories and stocks, capacity utilisation, geographic and producer concentration, how fast supply responds to price, the project pipeline and capital spending, and logistics and export flows. Material: the physical and chemical properties that set its grade, price and end uses (for example purity and conductivity for metals, API gravity, sulfur and energy content for fuels, moisture, protein and fibre quality for crops).Supply volume characteristics
| Characteristic | Figure | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current production volume | 1.78 trillion hen eggs (2024), roughly 95-100 Mt by calculation at 55-57 g each | Output rose from 649 billion eggs in 1990. China lays 34.8%, India 8.3% (147.3 billion eggs, 8.1 Mt) and Indonesia 8.2%. | FAOSTAT 2024 |
| Inventory and stock levels | about one day of use in the US: 20 million dozen at end-2026 (forecast) | Shell eggs are too perishable for strategic stocks; what is stored is mostly frozen and dried egg product. The layer flock is the real capital stock: the US had 374.7 million laying hens in 2024. India has no egg stockholding policy. | USDA WASDE, Oct 2026; FAOSTAT 2024 |
| Capacity utilisation | not published | Layer house occupancy is not reported. Avian influenza culls emptied US houses in 2025: production fell to 8,765 million dozen from 9,076 million in 2024 (down 3.4%), then recovered to a forecast 9,160 million dozen in 2026 as houses were restocked. | USDA WASDE, Oct 2026 |
| Geographic and producer concentration | China 34.8%, top-3 (China, India, Indonesia) 51.3%, HHI 1,438; exports: Netherlands 18.5% of value | Production is moderately concentrated by country but highly fragmented by firm. Cal-Maine sold 1.28 billion dozen in FY2025, about 14% of US output by calculation. | FAOSTAT 2024; UN Comtrade 2024; Cal-Maine FY2025 |
| Supply elasticity | medium: about 5-6 months to rebuild a flock | Pullets are reared for about 18-20 weeks before they start laying, so supply cannot respond quickly after culls. Hens lay for about a year or more, so flock size changes slowly. | industry practice (indicative); content_v2 eggs |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | growth in Asia and cage-free conversion; no aggregate CapEx figure | India's output grew fourfold since 2000 to 147.3 billion eggs. In the US and EU, capital spending goes mainly into converting cage housing to cage-free barns. FAO projected egg demand to grow 39% from 2005 to 2030. | FAOSTAT 2024; FAO 2013, Tackling climate change through livestock (GLEAM, ref. year 2005) |
| Logistics and export flows | small share traded: exports worth $5.65 billion (2024), mostly within Europe | Eggs are fragile and perishable, so most are eaten near where they are laid. The Netherlands, Poland and Germany trade across EU borders by truck; Turkey supplies the Middle East and the US exports egg products. India exported about 64,000 t net in 2024. Disease bans are the main chokepoint. | UN Comtrade 2024; exposure data |
Material characteristics Agricultural / soft commodity
Eggs are sold by weight class and grade. Interior quality (albumen height in Haugh units), shell strength and cleanliness decide grade and breakage losses. Yolk colour, set by feed, matters to buyers in some markets. Breaking plants buy for functional properties: binding, foaming and emulsifying. Salmonella control sets market access and shelf life.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | EU: S under 53 g, M 53-63 g, L 63-73 g, XL 73 g or more; US Large at least 24 oz per dozen (about 57 g per egg) | Price is set per size class; larger eggs earn more per dozen | EU Regulation 589/2008; USDA AMS egg standards |
| Interior quality | USDA AA at least 72 Haugh units, A 60-72 | Higher Haugh units mean fresher, firmer albumen and a higher grade | USDA AMS egg grading manual (indicative) |
| Average egg weight | about 55 g in India (8.1 Mt from 147.3 billion eggs, 2024) | Smaller eggs from local flocks reduce tonnage per egg | FAOSTAT 2024 (by calculation) |
| Composition | about 60% albumen, 30% yolk, 10% shell; about 12.5 g protein per 100 g | Breaking plants price liquid white and yolk separately | USDA FoodData Central; food science (indicative) |
| Shell quality | breaking strength about 3-4 kgf for sound shells | Weak shells raise breakage in grading and transport | poultry science (indicative) |
| Yield per hen | 290 eggs a year in the US, 218 in India (2024) | Laying rate sets feed cost per egg | FAOSTAT 2024 |