Blogging About Critters Since 2007

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Consolidation of Egg Industry

Don't think banks are the only ones gobbling each other up nowadays. So are egg corporations.

Thanks to an email from Farmed Animal Net for this information. These are not farming families, folks, but corporations as powerful and ruthless as anything on Wall Street.

The U.S. egg industry continues to consolidate. Some 200 companies have an average flock size of one million hens in a single location, with the top 60 companies producing 85% of all eggs. At the International Egg Commission’s annual meeting, held last month in China, it was noted that animal welfare activists in the U.S. and Canada are actively opposing battery cages. Proposed amendments to Canada’s Criminal Code have egg companies there worried. The U.S. egg industry is planning a strategic conference after the presidential election to plan for the future. In Mexico, many farms are being run as they were 3 or 4 decades ago, although there are some more modern large facilities. The country, which has the world’s highest per capita egg consumption (at nearly one a day), imports 50% of its grain from the U.S. and is not a major egg exporter. The Mexican egg industry is challenged by sanitary problems, and while it recognizes animal welfare issues they are said to not currently be a concern of Mexican consumers.

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