Cage egg consumption in Germany higher than assumed
Approximately 70% of the total consumption of eggs in Germany comes from caged hens.
Initially, this percentage was thought to be lower, but only 43% of cage eggs bought buy consumers in the shop that are labelled as such. In certain segments of the market there is no obligation to label eggs. As labelling is only the case with around 80% of all eggs sold, the portion of cage eggs bought could well be around 50%. The share of cage eggs in the non-labelled segments of the market is higher than in the supermarkets. Additionally, in Germany, boiled and coloured (Easter) eggs mainly consist of cage eggs.
Domestic consumption constitutes about 53% of the total consumption of eggs. 16% of total consumption comes from large consumers and hotels and restaurants as whole eggs or egg products and 31% is used as egg product in the food industry. Both for price reasons and for product safety reasons the egg product industry prefers cage eggs.
Summarizing these market segments in 2006, approximately 70% of all 17 billion eggs used in Germany came from caged hens.
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