A surplus in local egg production could push Ukrainian poultry farmers to increase exports amid repeated complaints from European producers about overwhelming imports from Ukraine.
After nearly 2 years of shortages, the Ukrainian egg market has begun to experience an oversupply, revealed Yevhen Khailov, Sales Director at Incuba, a local egg producer. The surplus is being felt despite record exports.
Ukraine is now producing more than 100 million eggs per month, Khailov told a local publication. Production has outpaced demand, as several poultry farmers struggled to boost it due to market shortages in recent years, with too many companies increasing their laying hen flocks.
Similar situations have occurred in the past, but poultry farmers are now limited in their opportunities to reduce their laying hen populations, as the poultry meat market is also completely saturated, Khailov has said. Furthermore, prolonged power outages pose a problem for farms, as they hinder poultry slaughter operations and meat storage.
Rising exports
Meanwhile, Ukrainian egg exports continue to rise. During the first half of 2024, foreign sales reached 36,980 t, up from 29,700 t the previous year, according to official data. The growth came as industrial egg production in Ukraine is recovering, the Ukrainian Poultry Farmers’ Union stated in a press release.
The largest importers of Ukrainian eggs were European countries, mainly Poland and Italy, as well as Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Israel, the organisation said.
Egg prices in Ukraine may rise in the coming months as the country prepares for prolonged blackouts during the winter season. DTEK, the country’s largest power generation company, estimated that power cuts could last up to 20 hours a day, as a substantial portion of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure lies in ruins.
Problems for European farmers
An egg surplus could push Ukrainian producers to increase exports amid repeated complaints from poultry farmers across the rest of Europe about overwhelming Ukrainian sales. In recent years, egg imports into Latvia have nearly quadrupled, declared Janis Gaigals, head of the Latvian Poultry Association, in an interview with Latvian Radio.
Gaigals has said that his organisation recently put forward a new idea on how to regulate poultry imports from Ukraine. “According to poultry farmers, it would be fair for the import duty on Ukrainian eggs not to be abolished, but rather to be set at a level that would equalise production conditions and not distort the market. And for all import duties collected to be transferred to the Ukrainian government, which would constitute direct economic support,” he said.