The flow diagram presenting the results for this supply chain, produced as part of the SOCLE project, offers a complete view of how material circulates, from supplies to final outlets. It is a Sankey-type representation: the thickness of the arrows is proportional to the quantities (in kilotonnes, kt), making it possible to grasp at a glance the relative weight of each segment.
This diagram aims to represent the supply chain as a whole at the level of detail allowed by the available public data. The chain is modelled without distinguishing farming systems (cage / barn / free-range / organic), as this distinction cannot be reliably reconstructed all along the chain from public sources.
The diagram represents all the material flows within the egg supply chain in France, for the 3 years studied in the SOCLE project: 2015, 2019 and 2023 (select the desired year in the timeline below the diagram).
Supplies include national production (laying), split into hatching eggs and table eggs, supplemented by imports of fresh eggs. The intermediate market highlights the two primary processing routes: the packing of shell eggs and the egg-breaking industry, which turns eggs (downgraded + processed + imported) into egg products (split into "non-white" and "egg white / ovalbumin", following the PRODCOM nomenclature), while generating co-products (shells, technical egg white, production rejects) and evaporating water during drying. The outlets include hatching (hatching eggs), human food (self-consumption, at-home purchases, out-of-home catering, agri-food industries), the recovery of co-products (fertilisation, animal feed, various uses) as well as exports.
The thickness of the flows makes it possible to identify the main recovery routes, the growing weight of processing into egg products, and the diversity of the final uses of the material produced by laying.
