July 27, 2011

In the first half of 2011, Ukraine's leading producer of eggs and egg products Ovostar Union reported a 15.5% increase in egg production to 291 million units over the same period last year.

The increase was mainly due to lower average layer age, improved operational efficiency and an increase in hen inventories.

The agro-industrial holding company said egg production in the first and second quarters totalled 143 million and 148 million units, respectively.

The total number of stocks as of June 30, 2011 was 2.46 million birds, including 1.92 million laying hens.

In the first half of 2011, sales of eggs rose by 38% on-year to 230 million units compared to the first half of 2010. The average selling price of eggs was UAH0.582 (US$0.07), an increase of 5.2% compared to last year.

In addition, the company increased export of eggs by 2.4 times to 54 million units due to growing external demand. In the first half of 2011, the company sold 658 tonnes of dry and 1,668 tonnes of liquid egg products.