"Chain" produces a good egg (three meals, four seasons)

In the early morning, on the common people’s dining tables, steaming boiled eggs; in restaurant kitchens, eggs are fried, stir-fried, and cooked into homestyle delicacies; in bakeries, golden egg yolks are evenly whipped… Eggs are one of the essential main characters on Chinese dining tables.

Today, Chinese consumers’ habits of buying eggs are quietly changing. Standing in front of supermarket shelves, many no longer just compare egg size and price but also carefully check traceability information.

From henhouse to dining table, how many steps must a trustworthy good egg go through? What progress has China’s egg industry made? Our reporter investigated.

Smart Farming —

Digital Management and Precise Nutrition Make Good Eggs Traceable and Controllable

“In the past, eggs were a supplementary food in consumer diets, with limited market supply, so people had to be careful when eating eggs daily; later, thanks to rapid development in poultry farming and feed industry, eggs became an indispensable nutritious ingredient on people’s tables,” said Zhang Junmin, Director of Beijing Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Chief Scientist of the National Egg Industry Technology System. China is the world’s largest egg producer, with output and scale long maintaining the top position globally, achieving full self-sufficiency.

What is the standard for a fresh, good egg?

“As a primary agricultural product, its most basic and important quality is safety,” said Zhang Junmin. Simply put, healthy chickens lay good eggs.

How to ensure chicken health?

At 7 a.m., at the Mianyang Zitong base of Sichuan Shengdile Village Ecological Food Co., Ltd., the farm manager has put on work clothes and completed full-body disinfection, then enters the henhouse to start the day’s work.

Inside the henhouse, the fresh air system runs steadily, automated devices promptly handle chicken manure, converting it into organic fertilizer, with the temperature maintained between 22–26°C and humidity at 60%–70%, ammonia levels below 10 ppm… “A comfortable environment benefits chicken health and enriches egg nutrition,” said Qi Sharina, Director of Product Development.

Qi Sharina emphasized that the company strictly controls the variety, origin, freshness, and mold toxin indicators of feed, and scientifically formulates nutrition for laying hens. Drinking water standards are aligned with those for human consumption, with full-process water quality monitoring. “Under the guidance of Academician Wang Hongning of Sichuan University, we also implement precise immunization procedures and anti-resistance control plans to eliminate drug residues from the source.”

How to ensure eggs are clean and safe?

Qi Sharina pointed to the fully automated production line. On the conveyor belt, eggs are orderly arranged, as if being reviewed, with robotic arms gently and precisely grabbing and stacking them. “Here, eggs undergo multiple processes such as washing, air drying, and UV sterilization, effectively killing E. coli and Salmonella on the shell surface,” she said.

Digital technology allows every egg to be traceable. Qi Sharina picked up an egg with a traceability code and explained that through the printed code, the entire chain from chick to storage and transportation can be queried. The company has invested in building a digital platform that integrates multiple systems from farm management to production traceability, creating a closed-loop data-driven process for research and production.

In recent years, in the egg-laying segment, feed-saving and efficiency improvements have been significant. “The National Egg Industry Technology System has developed comprehensive feed-saving programs, significantly improving feed conversion efficiency, with the feed-to-egg ratio approaching 2.1:1, and feed efficiency about 8% better than ten years ago,” said Zhang Junmin.

As residents’ nutritional needs become more refined and personalized, functional eggs such as Omega-3 enriched eggs, selenium-rich eggs, and lutein eggs have emerged. Are these products just marketing concepts or truly effective? Are the added nutrients safe? With so many different claims, how can consumers distinguish and choose?

Zhang Junmin explained that functional eggs are mainly produced during the feeding stage of hens, by scientifically adding specific functional nutrients such as selenium, DHA, and lutein into the feed, which are absorbed and converted by the hen, enriching the eggs with beneficial components. It’s important to note that functional eggs are not health supplements or medicines; they are meant to diversify food nutrition sources and give consumers more options.

Breeding as the “Core” —

Domestic Breeds Break Monopolies and Build the Foundation for Good Eggs

In the mid-1990s, imported laying hens once accounted for over 80% of China’s market share. “At that time, foreign breeding companies tightly controlled the egg chicken germplasm,” recalled Wu Guqin, Deputy General Manager of Beijing Huadu Yukou Poultry Co., Ltd., and Director of the Poultry Research Institute. Back then, an imported hen could lay over 300 eggs per year, while local breeds only produced around 100, a huge gap. After earning her doctorate, Wu Guqin resolutely entered breeding research, aiming to industrialize scientific achievements.

The premise of breeding is rich germplasm resources. “Germplasm is like a ‘mine’ for breeding,” Wu Guqin explained. Since the 1990s, Chinese scientists have consciously collected relevant germplasm resources, laying a solid foundation for subsequent egg chicken breeding.

At the national-level core breeding farm in Pinggu District, Beijing, technicians use intelligent equipment to collect data on each hen’s egg production, egg weight, and other traits. The eggs are then sent to testing centers to measure shell strength, Haugh units, and other quality indicators. All data are stored in a performance database for breeding selection.

In 2009, the “Jinghong 1” and “Jingfen 1” breeds, with annual egg production exceeding 330 eggs, were successfully developed, breaking foreign monopolies. After more than a decade of research, Yukou Poultry established a commercial independent breeding system. “Now, domestic egg chicken market share exceeds 60%, and the ‘Jing’ series has become the main breed in China,” Wu Guqin said. “Our breeding stock is also exported to countries like Tanzania and Laos.”

With improving living standards, consumers no longer just pursue large eggs; breakthroughs in breeding technology also support customized egg production.

“We have achieved ‘designed breeding,’” Wu Guqin said. “For example, to meet the preference for medium-sized pink-shell eggs among domestic consumers, we developed the ‘Jingfen 6,’ which produces many eggs, is easy to raise, weighs about 55 grams, and resembles the traditional rural eggs from childhood. The red-feather hens have higher added value.” As a result, this breed’s annual sales have exceeded 80 million hens.

“After nearly 40 years of development, China’s egg industry has achieved domestication of breeds and independent breeding technology,” said Zhang Junmin. “In the future, breeding goals will diversify, focusing on developing high-yield, high-quality, feed-efficient, and disease-resistant comprehensive breeds.”

Industry Chain Strengthening —

Deep Processing and Talent Support Drive the Future of Good Eggs

At Hanwei Egg Products Co., Ltd.’s Dalian R&D center, technicians are testing the foaming performance of newly developed enzymatic egg white powder. Under the microscope, the foam structure is delicate and uniform, with stability data far surpassing traditional products. “We focus on specialized development for baking and other professional fields, mainly to improve solubility and foaming performance, making egg raw materials better suited for application needs,” said Wang Hongrong, General Manager of Hanwei Egg Products.

“Currently, the deep processing rate of eggs in China is only about 8%, which is still far behind developed countries. This indicates huge market potential and room for industrial upgrading,” Wang said. As the catering industry, baking sector, and consumer demand expand, there is an increasing need for standardized, high-quality egg raw materials.

“Deep processing is the core path to increasing industry added value,” emphasized Hanwei Group’s General Manager Han Jianchu. By large-scale processing of fresh eggs into products like egg liquid, egg powder, and soft-boiled eggs, Hanwei converts primary agricultural products into high-value industrial raw materials and convenient foods, exporting to over ten countries and regions, and achieving multi-channel premium pricing for fresh eggs, industrial raw materials, and retail products.

However, although China’s egg industry continues to grow in scale, it is still mainly composed of small farms and scattered farmers. The total volume is large but dispersed.

“Whether large enterprises or small and medium-sized farms and farmers, there is an urgent need to strengthen production management. Cultivating management skills, technical capabilities, and efficiency among egg producers will further strengthen the supply chain,” said Zhang Junmin. Last year, in response to this industry challenge, the National Egg Industry Technology System launched the “Egg Technology School” public training project to empower rural revitalization with science and technology.

Local farm technician Chen Xiang from Guangxi, a typical small-scale farm owner, said, “After participating in the ‘Egg Technology School’ training, I solved long-standing problems like high feed-to-egg ratio and inadequate disease prevention in winter. It was very helpful.”

Zhang Junmin added, “The ‘Egg Technology School’ has successfully held two sessions, training over 100 technical backbone personnel, promoting technological advancement and talent cultivation in the egg industry. Next, we will accelerate the transformation of scientific research results into practical applications, cultivating more professional and practical talents to promote standardized, precise, and efficient egg farming.”

“Our egg industry has entered a new stage of moving from quantity growth to high-quality development. In the future, through intelligent, branding, green development, and deep processing along the entire industry chain, we will push China’s egg industry toward modernization,” said Zhang Junmin.