Egg production in Serbia

SUMMARY

Table egg production is a rapidly growing agricultural sector in the world, although is at a much lower level in Serbia. The total number of poultry in Serbia in 2018 was 16,232,000 birds, of which laying hens comprised 66.58%, broilers 30.05%, turkeys 1.27%, geese 0.46%, ducks 1.03% and other types of poultry 0.61%. The numbers of eggs in Serbia in 2018 decreased by 7.47% compared to 2006 production figures. This decline has been followed by an increase in imported eggs, particularly from EU countries (1033.9 t in 2018). Exports are mainly to signatory countries of Central European Free Trade Agreement, and, in 2018, and all eggs were exported to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia. Net trade was negative during the observed period, from −337.6 t in 2006 to −4225.3 and −2037 t in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Serbian egg producers face many challenges, including high production (especially feed) costs, low technology, lack of harmonised legislation within the EU and low retail price of eggs. Compound feed production is in decline, and the export of raw nutrients is at high rates (549,243.2 t in 2018). Improvements in feed processing and nutrition strategies may be crucial to develop table egg industry in a sustainable manner.

KEYWORDS:

• Poultry
• egg
• feed
• production
• Serbia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marija Pavlović

Marija Pavlović graduated and completed her PhD at the Faculty of Veterinary medicine, University of Belgrade. Since 2018 she is engaged as research associate at Department for food and feed safety, Scientific Veterinary institute of Serbia, where she works on microbiological and PCR techniques for food and feed analyses, both routine and research. Previously, she worked as veterinary inspector at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water management, Veterinary Directorate. She published about 40 papers in national, international journals and conference proceedings.

Snežana Ivanović

Snežana Ivanović graduated from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Belgrade, where she also completed her postgraduate master's and doctoral studies. She is engaged at the Department for food and feed safety, Scientific Veterinary institute of Serbia. Her activities were accomplished through various forms of national and international cooperation and projects whereby she published more than 150 papers and other publications, and 8 books, from the field of food quality and safety.

Ksenija Nešić

Ksenija Nešić graduated from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Belgrade, where she also completed her postgraduate master's and doctoral studies. During her 20 year career at the Scientific Veterinary institute of Serbia she dealt with the safety and quality of food and feed, both from a research and routine perspective. She was engaged in teaching and gained special expertise in laboratory analytics and application of various techniques: PCR, ELISA and microscopy. Her activities were accomplished through various forms of national and international cooperation and projects whereby she published about 140 different papers and other publications.