The hen egg is one of the most important food for people. It is the origin of an specific sector in the whole cattle production and in the food industry.

Poultry farming was born 8000 years ago. It was a rural activity in Spain as in other countries until the 20^th century. Then, hens looked for food themselves, they were seldom fed by men with leftovers and they had a shelter for the winter.

Sooner in the 19^th century, industrial poultry farming started selecting different native hen breeds what improved production. On the first decades of the 20^th century production and consumption were relatively low. However,  intensive poultry farming became a normal practice in 1960, and egg production was over 600 million dozens at the end of this decade. Between 1970 and 1985 there was a poultry farming revolution. Spanish production reached 900 million dozens and domestic consume rose at the same time. In 1991, technology innovations appeared and these provoked notable unbalances between offer and demand, making prices going up and down. Spain was the fourth producer in Europe along the 90s featuring 40 million laying hens that covered the domestic demand.

Egg production and consumption

There were near 5,000 million hens in the world in the year 2000, 300 million in the European Union. There were more than 35 million hens in Spain. Spanish regions featuring the largest number of hens were Castilla La Mancha, Catalonia, Castilla Leon and Andalusia. The world egg production is about 50 million tons hens.

Laying hens and egg production in Spain

(Source: Agriculture, Fish and Food Department)

Laying hens and egg production by regions in 1998

(Source: Agriculture, Fish and Food Department)

Spanish egg consumption in the year 2000 was 223 eggs per person in contrast to 300 in 1987. Currently, Northern Spain has the highest consumption, meanwhile along the Mediterranean coastline consumption is lower. The large majority of Spanish production is for direct consumption (85%), in which 75% is for home consumption and 25% is for restaurants consumption. The rest is for the egg product industry. Eggs have a very god balance between nutritional value and price.

(Source: Agriculture, Fish and Food Department)