Germany: Egg production up 1.4 percent in 2022
Barn husbandry continues to be the dominant form of husbandry, free-range and ecological husbandry has increased significantly.
With 59.7% of the eggs produced, barn husbandry was again the dominant form of husbandry in Germany, despite a reduced proportion. Five years ago, their share was 65.4%. Accordingly, the proportion of free-range eggs increased from 15.9% to 21.5% and organically produced eggs from 10.7% to 13.8% in the same period. The remaining 5% of the total production of table eggs was kept in small groups, which was 8% five years ago.
The average stock of laying hens kept in barn systems fell by 1.4% in 2022 compared to the previous year to around 26.2 million animals. At the same time, the number of barn eggs fell by 2.1% to 7.9 billion eggs. After a decline in the previous year, the average number of free-range laying hens rose by almost 1 million to 9.5 million animals in 2022 (+11.7%). The number of free-range eggs rose by almost 299 million to a good 2.8 billion eggs (+11.8%).
Due to the increasing incidence of avian influenza in Germany since 2020, poultry farms are repeatedly affected by the obligation to keep stables. This can have an impact on the number of laying hens and the eggs produced in free-range husbandry, since these have to be declared as barn husbandry after 16 weeks of compulsory stables. The result is shifts between these two forms of husbandry. The increase in production in free-range husbandry is also due to the fact that eggs could again be increasingly declared as free-range eggs in 2022 due to fewer restrictions due to the obligation to keep stables.
In organic production, the average number of laying hens rose by almost 411,000 to 6.2 million animals (+7.1%). Last year around 109 million more eggs were laid by organic hens. The number of organic eggs thus increased by 6.3% to a good 1.8 billion. As in previous years, the number of animals kept in small groups fell again in 2022, by 5.4% to almost 2.2 million animals. The number of eggs produced in this form of husbandry fell by 56 million to almost 662 million (-7.8%). The reason for this is the ban on this form of husbandry combined with a phase-out period for existing farms until the end of 2025.
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