Source:  MEATINGPLACE.COM, 4/8/10

While a jump in egg sets in March to the highest average weekly rate in two years raises eyebrows in the meat industry, broiler producers still have little appetite for expansion, analysts said in the CME Group's Daily Livestock Report.

Small changes in broiler production can add significant pounds to the weekly protein available in the marketplace, the report noted.

The March egg set weekly average was up 2.5 percent from a year ago, USDA said Wednesday in its weekly survey of broiler hatcheries in 19 states.

"While the increase was notable, it was mostly due to a dip in egg sets last March rather than a new found impetus for expansion by broiler producers in 2010," livestock economists Steve Meyer and Len Steiner said in the report.

Weekly egg sets have been steady for a while and remain well below five-year averages, and U.S. broiler supplies in the second quarter will be close to year-ago levels, the report said.

The industry is smaller today than it was in 2008 after the financial crisis put hatcheries and plants out of business, and current egg sets of around 205 million per week are about 7 percent below pre-recession levels, the report said.

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