FAOSTAT FEEDBACK

[Saulius]

I want to report an inconsistency that I noticed in egg-laying hen numbers in http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QL (“Producing Animals/Slaughtered”, “Eggs, hen, in shell”). For the U.K., the number seems to include not only layers, but also pullets (hens who are too young to lay eggs) and roosters (who are used for breeding hens). For the U.S., the number includes layers, but not pullets or roosters. Pullets and roosters make up about 27% of all chickens involved in the U.S. egg industry, so the difference is non-negligible and makes comparisons between different countries problematic.

I think that UK hen numbers include pullets and roosters because of numbers in this spreadsheet https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... 4mar19.xls Poultry tab, Total laying and breeding fowl row seem to be very similar to FAOSTAT numbers. For years until 2013 numbers are exactly the same. For example, 47024 for 2013. The spreadsheet is taken from https://www.gov.uk/government/statistic ... t-december

I think that U.S. hen numbers exclude pullets and roosters because the layer numbers for the U.S. in the table “Annual Average Number of Layers, Eggs per Layer, and Total Egg Production” from USDA’s Chickens and Eggs 2018 Summary (https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/ ... egan18.pdf) are identical to the ones in FAOSTAT. For example, 375845 for 2017. I asked the U.S. government (Kimberly Linonis, NASS, USDA) about these numbers and they answered: “Any layer number in the summary report does not include pullets. NASS’s definitions of the two are mutually exclusive: layers are females of any age laying marketable eggs while pullets are females who are not yet laying marketable eggs.” Since the table in the USDA summary says “layers”, it follows that it and FAO’s numbers exclude pullets and roosters.

[faostatTeam]

Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for your message.you are correct there is a mistake,

At the end of this year the data will be revised.

Best regards,

FAOSTAT help desk