• Currently, the top ten egg producing states (ranked by number of layers represented in thousands) are:

• The five largest egg producing states represent approximately 50 percent of all U.S. layers.

• U.S. egg production during February 2008 was 6.05 billion table eggs, which is up from 5.94 billion table eggs produced during February of last year.

• Presently, there are 60 egg producing companies with 1 million plus layers and 12 companies with greater than 5 million layers.**

• To date, there are approximately 245 egg producing companies with flocks of 75,000 hens or more. These companies represent about 95 percent of all the layers in the United States.** In 1987 there were around 2,500 operations.**(Number of operations in 1987 include some contract farms and divisions.)

• In 2007, the average number of egg-type laying hens in the United States was 284 million. Flock size for March 1, 2008 was 282 million layers; down from 288 million a year ago. Rate of lay per day on March 1, 2008 averaged 72.3 eggs per 100 layers, up slightly from a year ago.

• Of the 211.1 million cases (estimated) of shell eggs produced in 2007:

66 million cases (31.3%) were further processed (for foodservice, manufacturing, retail & export);

124.6 million cases (59%) went to retail;

19 million cases (9%) went for foodservice use; and

1.5 million cases (0.7%) were exported.

• For 2007 exports of processed egg products continued to soar, rising 8 percent for the year to $74.2 million, while table egg export volume increased 42 percent to 78.7 million dozen, with a value of $63.5 million, up 74 percent.

Exports of processed egg products to Japan, the single largest market, showed some slippage, falling 19 percent, to $25.3 million. Japan accounted for 34 percent of the total value of exports in 2007. Helping boost the bottom line, however, was Mexico, thanks in part to USAPEEC’s efforts there to promote the use of U.S. egg products in commercial applications and food service. Shipments to Mexico shot upward by 33 percent, to $9.5 million. Sales to Canada, another leading market, increased 2 percent to $7.9 million.

Hong Kong remained, as it has for years, the top market for U.S. table eggs. Shipments to Hong Kong of 25.4 million dozen were up 20 percent last year, and the value of $19.0 million increased significantly by 40 percent.***

Source: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, **American Egg Board, ***USAPEEC