Eggs are in the news due to avian influenza reducing the total supply and inelastic demand causing prices to skyrocket. However, the impacts are felt even more dramatically in lower income countries where eggs have traditionally been a lower cost animal protein source. The Netherlands is the top producer on a per capita basis, but it is the top exporter of eggs in both dried and liquid forms. It is supplying those products to many other nations but especially to other members of the EU.  Germany and Japan are large importers of dried egg product, arbitraging the lower energy costs in supplying countries. The United States is a major supplier of dried egg product due to lower energy costs. Excluding intra-EU trade, the U.S. and China ar...

TAGS – Livestock, North America