Egg consumption in Belgium has increased yet again over the past year. Not only are people buying more eggs, they are also eating more of them at a time.
Belgians bought 80.4 eggs per capita in 2024 – a 5% increase compared to the year before, according to figures on the purchasing behaviour of Belgian households commissioned by the Flemish Centre for Agro and Fisheries Marketing (VLAM).
"Due to the growth in the number of eggs bought, egg spending rose 6% compared to 2023 to €21.70. A free-range egg was the cheapest (€0.23 each), the organic egg was the most expensive (€0.41 each), while eggs from free-range hens were in between, at €0.34 each."
Homegrown eggs
Not only were more eggs bought, their consumption also increased. On an average day in 2024, a quarter (26%) of Belgians ate eggs – not including eggs in prepared foods. In 2017, the figure was 16% of Belgians. Among that group, there are relatively more French speakers, more people aged 18 to 34 and relatively more consumers with foreign roots.
Three-quarters of the time people in Belgium eat eggs, they do so at home. Just under one in ten (9%) eat them at work/school, 8% with family and friends, 7% on location (catering party and sports venues, events and festivals) and 3% on the way somewhere.
Three-quarters of the eggs people buy are free-range. Often, those eggs come from their own garden: 21% of egg consumption consists of eggs received or home-grown eggs.
Credit: Belga/David Pintens
Additionally, eggs are more often than other food products received from family and friends or obtained from people's own chickens (often called 'hobby chickens' in Belgium). Over a fifth (21%) of egg consumption consists of eggs received or home-grown.
However, the price of eggs in Belgium continued to rise last year, and even reached a new record in March 2025. For a 62.5-gram brown free-range egg, the price stood at 17.69 cents. A week ago, it was 17.52 cents.
To be clear, this is the price the poultry farmer gets. In shops, a carton of eggs is much higher – meaning consumers easily pay double that amount. The reason for the high prices is the globally tight market: demand is high, while supply is limited due to bird flu in the US and Eastern Europe, among others.
