In-Ovo Sexing Quarterly Roundup: Q1 2025
Welcome to Innovate Animal Ag's Q1 2025 in-ovo sexing roundup, where we dive into the latest news for the technology and what it means for consumers and producers across the globe.
Business Roundup
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, added in-ovo sexing as a focus area in its newest animal welfare policies for its US egg suppliers. Coming just months after the first in-ovo sexed hens were hatched in the US, the development signals continued strong momentum for the technology. Given Walmart’s massive scale—over 30 million hens supplying its predominantly commodity-based egg sales—this move signals that in-ovo sexing technology will expand beyond specialty markets into the broader US egg industry.
In their January 2025 meeting, the United Egg Producers rolled out its in-ovo sexing certification, called United Egg Producers Certified Hatch Check. This certification verifies that the eggs come from in-ovo sexed hens and that egg farms and packing facilities have proper procedures to segregate Hatch Check eggs from conventional eggs. Producers now have two options for eggs from in-ovo sexed hens, the other being released last quarter by Humane Farm Animal Care, which operates the Certified Humane certification program.
There was also major news out of Europe this quarter, where in-ovo sexing was classified as compliant with EU organic production regulations. According to Lohmann Deutschland, in-ovo sexing procedures are now permitted at their hatcheries under EU Organic Regulation 2018/848. When the German chick culling ban went into effect in 2022, egg producers initially responded primarily by raising the male chicks for meat, a practice that was costly and unsustainable. By the beginning of 2024, in-ovo sexing had climbed to 70% of the German market, but given that up to 20% of the market was organic, the technology had limited room for further penetration. Some, but not all, organic producers in Germany use even stricter standards than the rest of the EU, so in-ovo still won't be able to achieve 100% penetration yet. However, with the updated EU regulations, more of the organic market can now adopt the technology, paving the way for further expansion across Europe.
The Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature unveiled a roadmap this quarter to end male chick culling for table eggs sold in the Netherlands by 2026. The plan introduced the "ZED" (Without Day-Old Chick Culling) certification as the Dutch equivalent to Germany's "OKT" standard. Most Dutch hatcheries are already equipped with in-ovo sexing technology for the German market, making them well-positioned for this transition.
New Research and Initiatives
Innovate Animal Ag released our 2024 annual review this quarter. The report digs into how the rapid global adoption of in-ovo sexing in 2024 demonstrated a crucial truth about technological progress–when innovation aligns business success with societal benefits, market forces can drive change faster than regulation. In 2024, we watched this principle unfold across continents as producers voluntarily embraced a technology that improves both animal welfare and the bottom line. You can read more by downloading the report here.
Perdue Farms became the first major US broiler producer to more widely implement on-farm hatching. Following successful trials, Perdue will begin to deploy NestBorn’s egg placing machines so that chicks can hatch in their rearing environment rather than in traditional hatcheries. This development could signal a broader US industry shift toward this production method that improves both animal welfare and operational efficiency, and is a step towards the Hatchery of the Future.
For more detailed information on in-ovo sexing technologies and their impact on the poultry industry, visit our In-Ovo Sexing Overview. If you are planning on visiting PEAK 2025 in Minneapolis, please reach out to schedule a meeting at contact@innovateanimalag.org.
