We eat, on average, 200 eggs each per year

Free-Range Hens eggsFree-Range Hens. Photo: Norway Today Media

In Norway, there are over 4.3 million hens ensuring that we get more than 200 eggs each per year.

 

“Norwegians are an egg-eating people, and we are still eating even more of them. In 2016, 68 million kilos of eggs were produced. This is an increase of 38% from 1995, said Anne Ingunn Løvberget, advisor in the section for primary industry statistics at Statistics Norway (SSB).

Distributed among the population, there are on average of 13 kilos of eggs, i.e. in excess of 200 eggs each, per year.

But while the hen population grows, there are fewer companies involved in egg production.

‘’In 1959, there were 85,600 farms, which together had 2.7 million hens. By 2017, 4.3 million hens were distributed among almost 2,000 farms, explained Løvberget.

A hen produces eggs from when she is 20 weeks old until she is 78 weeks of age. On average, the hens produce 225 kilos of eggs in the 58 weeks, i.e. 357 eggs in 406 days, according to Prior company.

Egg production hens are slaughtered when they are around 18 months old. Their meat was previously an important by-product of egg production, but its popularity has fallen.

“From the 1990s to 2016, the annual production of chicken meat has decreased from 3,000 to 1,000 tonnes, and the price has gradually decreased also,” said Løvberget.

 

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today