Poultry International - September 2010

The future of egg processing
over the next 10 years

In an increasingly
interconnected world,
processors are ever-

Sustainability, animal welfare, traceability and global trade rules will all have a major impact on egg processing over the next 10 years.

— Joost van Loon

more subject to the
same pressures,
irrespective of location.

Joost van Loon, from Dutch egg and egg products concern Weko, Morten Ernst, sales director with Sanovo, Dave Rettig, president of Rembrandt Foods and Cesar de Anda, treasurer of the International Poultry Council, addressed delegates during the recent IEC conference, sharing their opinions and predictions about some of the changes the egg processing industry will undergo over the next 10 years.

Van Loon gave the European perspective, Ernst shared his expertise about the Asian market, while Rettig provided the North American outlook and de Anda described the future situation in Latin America.

All four of these industry experts highlighted traceability, and expressed their strong belief that, over the next decade, traceability will become an even more important issue to the egg industry as a whole. This will have major implications for egg products, and van Loon explained that in Europe, new developments are already underway to enable the traceability of both liquid egg and powdered egg products.

Europe

The four major issues that will a;ect egg processing during the next decade are sustainability, animal welfare, traceability and rulings about world trade. This was the message from van Loon.

Sustainability is already becoming increasingly important in the European egg market, and van Loon predicts that it will become even more so during the next decade. He believes that this trend is predominantly driven by multinational organisations and the major food retailers, but that producers and processors must respond to these market demands.

Animal welfare issues have had a major impact on European egg production over recent years, and this will continue. 2012 will bring a ban on conventional cages within the European Union, and van Loon believes that enriched cages will play an important role in satisfying demand during the next decade.

Nobody can be certain of how
world trade will be managed during
the coming years, whether export
refunds will end, and what taxes may, or
may not, exist. However, as European
processors plan for intercontinental
trade, they must prepare for a future in
which they will be selling their products
outside of Europe. Therefore, they
need to be competitive on price, while
still complying with the conventional
cage legislation, using the alternative
production systems required by EU law.

Asia

60% of the world’s eggs come from Asia. By 2015, it is predicted that worldwide egg consumption will increase to 70 million tonnes, 70% of which will come from Asia.