egg on the road

Unlike most other foods we buy in a shop, an egg gets to that place without any further processing. The supply chain of an egg is therefore very short, one should assume. This short supply chain is perhaps one reason why there are several egg delivery services in Switzerland. The promise is to get fresh eggs from the farmer once a week.
In Zurich, this delivery is offered by Eiermaa, from whom this egg was also delivered. On each egg there is a printed code that gives some information about the origin. The first number says something about the conditions under which the chickens are kept, the letters reveal the country, the number after that is an identification of the farmer and last there is the laying date. 1-CH 281 05.03 means that this egg is a free-range egg laid in Switzerland by a hen belonging to Thomas & Damaris Münger in 3053 Diemerswil on the fifth of March. Gallosuisse

It is interesting that 8706 Meilen, where the egg was delivered, and 3053 Diemerswil, where the egg came from, are 145 km away from each other and that there are several egg producers around Meilen at the same time. To understand the path of the egg, it is helpful to take a look at Eiermaa. The company belongs to Frigemo AG, which is part of the fenaco cooperative. Another company of Frigemo AG is EiCo, which is based in 3008 Bern and 8560 Märstetten. The activity of EiCo is to collect the eggs from the farmers, to control the quality and to pack them. There are several such companies in Switzerland, such as Lüchinger + Schmied AG, which belongs to Micarna AG and eventually to Migros, or Ei AG, which supplies mostly to Coop.

Because of these corporate structures, it seems that every company has an egg region in Switzerland. For Eiermaa, which belongs to fenaco, this means the region around 3008 Bern and 8560 Märstetten. If, on the other hand, you buy an egg somewhere in a Coop, it is more likely that you will get an egg from the region around 6210 Sursee. Of course, the companies also trade among themselves. Many customers explicitly want to buy eggs from the region, which is only made possible by this. That leaves us with the question of what regionality actually means. What all the Egg processors have in common is that they are located next to a motorway. 65% of the Eggs laid in Switzerland will get processd by this companies which are more than 640 Million Eggs a year.

Eggs have been traded on a large scale for more than 100 years. Since eggs are a fragile thing, it was difficult to transport them. Baskets were replaced by boxes in which each egg had its own place. In 1969, a patent was filed that largely corresponded to today's egg carton. Now it was possible to pack the eggs in one place and transport them to the supermarket. The supermarket could put the egg carton in the shop and the customer could take the carton. The risk of an egg breaking is reduced to a minimum during the whole process, as long as the egg stays in its box. The egg tread is long a global marked. Switzerland gets 40% of his eggs from the European union, which is en netto exporter for eggs.

(1) - Aviforum, Aviforum
(2) - EiCO verpackt täglich Hundertausende Eier für die ganze Schweiz, Tagblatt
(3) - Produzentenverband Gallosuisse, gallosuisse
(4) - Infografik Schweizer Eiermarkt, Bundesamt für Landwirtschaft BLW
(5) - patent egg carton, patent US 3458108A

images
1 - Zürich, 21.03.2021, BSV
2 - Aviforum, BLW, drawn by BSV
3 - Aviforum, BLW, drawn by BSV
4 - patent US 3458108A
5 - Mario Testa, Tagblatt
6 - Friedrich Engesser, Sozialarchiv
7 - Kloten, 01.04.2021, BSV
8 - Kloten, 01.04.2021, BSV