Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/49136

Annual per capita egg consumption showed continual growth following WWII. However, consumption failed to grow after 1973, gradually took a downturn, and demand for eggs fell. The amount of eggs produced nationwide grew every year until 1970, and in 1992, annual production exceeded 2.5 million tonnes. Following this, lower levels of consumption and overproduction led to a surplus. This excess in production has continued since 1993. Egg production in Hokkaido started as a “sideline” business by subsistence farmers, with several hundreds of thousands of breeders at its height. The Hokkaido poultry industry has recently changed. Currently, 70 percent of egg production is done by only seven breeders (companies) raising more than 200,000 chickens. This paper considers the food system of the egg in light of the historical details of the egg industry, with regard to (1) the background of the functional changes in the system of agricultural cooperatives in the development of Hokkaido’s egg industry that shifted the system from many small-scale poultry farmers to a few industrial livestock producers, and (2)the issues of egg distribution, supply and demand, and price, with a focus on the changes in the 30 years between 1980 and 2010.