Latest Government figures show that the free range layer flock is continuing to increase in Northern Ireland.
The statistics, which are produced by Northern Ireland's Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), have just been released by Defra in London.
The figures are for November 2017 and provide a comparison with the same month in 2016.
They show that the number of free range layers placed in Northern Ireland in November 2017 was 2.82 million - an increase of 5.5 per cent on the 2.67 million placed in November 2016.
Placings of cage birds was also up, even though major UK retailers have committed to moving away from cage eggs by 2025.
In November last year, the number of cage birds placed in Northern Ireland was 1.86 million - an increase of 3.8 per cent on the 1.79 million placed in the same month the previous year.
The number of eggs from all production systems arriving each week in Northern Ireland packing stations during November was 83,812 cases. The number in November 2016 was 72,337 cases.
The number from free range, perchery and organic units in 2017 was 51,372 cases per week compared with 42,873 the previous year.
'Encouraging'
Earlier this year representatives of the British Free Range Egg Producers Association (BFREPA) attended a meeting in County Tyrone to discuss the rapid growth of free range egg production in the province.
BFREPA chairman James Baxter and the association's chief executive, Robert Gooch, joined about 120 egg producers at the meeting.
During the meeting, Robert Gooch said that the number of free range birds in the UK as a whole had been increasing by 10 per cent each year since 2015.
He said that, whilst the growth of free range in Northern Ireland had been very positive, he sounded a note of caution at the speed of the growth.
"It's encouraging to see the growth we are experiencing in the UK and, indeed, the spurt of growth in Northern Ireland. However, as an economist, I would hint caution at the rate of this growth in Northern Ireland as demand is not increasing at the same rates," he said.
'Minimum disruption'
It was suggested during the meeting that the cost of production in Northern Ireland was 25 per cent less than in other parts of the UK. A supplier of poultry houses in the province said that farmers in Northern Ireland paid less to build a poultry unit.
The latest figures produced by DAERA are based on an egg packers survey, which is carried out twice each year.
With Brexit looming, one set of figures included in the report may be of interest to the egg industry. The figures show that just 37 per cent of eggs produced in Northern Ireland stay in the province.
Some 55 per cent go across the Irish Sea to the rest of the UK, with eight per cent of the eggs crossing the border into the Republic of Ireland.
The Ulster Farmers Union has called for minimum disruption to trade with both the Republic and the rest of the UK in any post-Brexit settlement between the UK and the European Union.
UK egg industry leaders have also called for a close relationship with the European Union when the UK eventually leaves the bloc.
