2120 final report.pdf - Agra CEAS Consulting

APPENDIX 1: MEMBER STATE REPORTS1210Egg production in billion eggs864201992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003Figure A1.80: Egg production in the UK 1992 to 2003Source: Defra, packing station throughput.The UK industry has remained reasonably unchanged in terms of the structure of producers asillustrated in Figure A1.81 which shows the evolution of proportion of flocks by flock size. However,Figure A1.82, which presents the evolution of the proportion of laying hens by flock size, shows thatthere has been an increase in the proportion of the national flock kept in units in excess of 20,000birds. In 1991 there were 296 producers with flocks in excess of 20,000 birds (accounting for 71.8%of all layers) and 1.4% of layers were in flocks of less than 100 birds. By 2002 this position hadaltered to show that 305 producers had flocks with more than 20,000 birds (but now equivalent to80.5% of the national flock) and 1.2% of the national laying flock was kept in flocks of less than 100birds. This suggests that significant consolidation took place before the 1990s and since then themajor change has simply been an increase in scale at the larger end of the producer base.312