The egg industry is OK

I spent most of this week with a group of egg producers from around the world, and the clear message was that the egg industry is doing fine right now.

I attended Hy-Line’s International Technical School in Des Moines, Iowa, an event that they host every two years. This was by far the largest group that has ever attended this school: 115 producers from 27 countries and five continents.

More than half of the attendees were from Latin America (representing 9 countries), and there was a large French delegation, but the rest of the world was also well represented. (Simultaneous translation of the conferences was done in Spanish, French and Russian.)

The fact that this was the largest group ever at this school speaks volumes about the state of the industry, since the attendees had to pay their own travel and lodging expenses. When things are bad, travel is one of the first things that is cut.

As I spoke to participants from many countries, the message was the same: the egg industry is doing well right now. Most folks were very pleased with the way the things were going for them. That is in contrast to the broiler industry, which is in a tight spot right now.

As one person stated, directly to the point, egg producers are making money right now.

The egg industry all over the world, is typically one of very tight margins, and so one rarely sees the egg producers quite so satisfied. This is especially notable due to the very difficult economic situation that the whole world is experiencing right now.

In all the doom and gloom that we’ve been hearing, and will keep hearing I’m sure, it’s nice to see at least one segment of the poultry industry doing well.