Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.
Compared with meat, poultry industry has registered a significant growth in India, which ranks fifth in the world with annual egg production of 1.61 million tonnes. However, egg processing is in the nascent stage in India and is mostly concentrated in southern states of the country. India exports egg powder, frozen egg yolk and albumin powder to Europe, Japan and other countries. While meat products have registered a growth of 10 per cent, eggs have registered 16–20 per cent growth in recent years. With diet diversification and rise in income, there is a good scope in expansion of egg consumption, through branding and consumer education. There are about 15 pure line and grandparent franchise projects in India. There are 115 layers, producing 1.3 million layer parents. They, in turn, supply 95-million hybrid layers. Presently, there are only five egg powder plants in India, which are considered insufficient in view of growing export demand for different kinds of egg powder — whole egg, yolk and albumin. The scope for foreign collaborations and dissemination of state-of-the-art technology in this field is tremendous. The paper has examined strategies for expansion of egg production and consumption in India through value-added egg products like branded eggs, vegetarian eggs, organic eggs, egg powder, etc. It has also examined interstate differences in egg consumption and demand and supply situation of eggs in India.
