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Easter basket (symbol): 5.9 billion eggs are imported every year
Photo: Peer Körner / dpa
Egg consumption in Germany is increasing: According to the Federal Information Center for Agriculture (BZL), it increased by an average of four eggs to a total of 239 eggs per capita last year.
Even the 42.9 million laying hens in Germany are unable to satisfy this huge demand: In total, they had 12.9 billion eggs, the Federal Statistical Office reported shortly before Easter on egg production.
The performance of the laying hens is enormous: According to the information, every chicken lays an egg almost every day, namely 301 eggs per chicken and year.
Converted to the population, this amount is sufficient to supply each person with 155 eggs from domestic production.
The rest of the egg requirement is covered by hens from abroad: 5.9 billion fresh eggs were imported last year, three quarters from the Netherlands.
Organic chickens lay significantly fewer eggs
Almost 40 percent of German eggs came from businesses in Lower Saxony (5.1 billion), followed by North Rhine-Westphalia (1.4 billion) and Bavaria (1.1 billion).
However, the information provided by the Federal Office only covers companies with at least 3000 places for keeping laying hens; smaller farms are not registered.
There are big differences in laying performance between conventional and organic hens: an organic chicken laid an average of 293 eggs per year in 2020, and a caged chicken almost 310 eggs, as the statisticians also reported.
apr / dpa
