In-Ovo Sexing Quarterly Roundup: Q4 2023
Welcome to Innovate Animal Ag’s quarterly roundup for Q4 2023, where we dive into the latest news for the technology, and what it means for consumers and producers across the globe.
It’s been a huge quarter for in-ovo sexing, including significant capital infusions into the industry, a 23% increase in global capacity, and the release of multiple important new pieces of research.
Business Round-up
The German egg certification organization KAT announced this quarter that in-ovo sexing has become the dominant method of complying with the German ban on male chick culling. When the ban first went into effect, in-ovo sexing technology was not as developed as it is now and 70% of male chicks were raised and sold for meat. Now, after four years of technological progress and scale up, in-ovo sexing is used in 70% of cases. Given that in-ovo sexing is the most economical and sustainable alternative to male chick culling, the managing director of KAT said that “it can be assumed that in-ovo sexing will be the dominant method for avoiding chick killing in the future.”
At least five new in-ovo sexing machines were installed in European hatcheries, indicating a 23% increase in global capacity in a single quarter. Orbem announced that two hatcheries, Lohmann Deutschland’s hatchery in Dorum and a Pluriton hatchery in the Netherlands, are adding Orbem’s MRI-based machines to their facilities. In Ovo announced that they have hatched their first batch of in-ovo sexed chicks with their newly installed machine at the Vepymo hatchery in Belgium. Respeggt also sold a new machine to the A.C. Weiss hatchery in south Germany and installed another circuit at the Lohmann Deutschland Ankum hatchery. Silvin Faulstich, a spokesperson for Respeggt, told Innovate Animal Ag, “The increasing demand for table eggs ‘Free of Chick Culling’ from retail and food producers requires mature, accurate and reliable in-ovo sexing technology in the supply chain. By bringing our technology to Norway [last quarter], and by tripling capacities in Germany in Q4 2023, we have been able to showcase our commitment and ability to meet these requirements.”
Two in-ovo sexing technology companies received large cash injections this quarter. Munich-based in-ovo sexing start-up Orbem closed a €30 million Series A, which will help facilitate the commercial roll out of their MRI-based technology. In Ovo, a Netherland’s based startup with a liquid-based analysis technology, secured a €40 million loan from the European Investment Bank to further scale its technology. In Ovo’s CEO, Wouter Bruins, told Innovate Animal Ag that the funding “will help us become a worldwide player, positively impacting animals throughout the food production channel.”
Agri Advanced Technologies told Innovate Animal Ag that its in-ovo sexing technology, called Cheggy, had sexed a total of 120 million hatching eggs since the machine was first commercialized in 2020 (for reference, around 800 million eggs are hatched in Europe each year). Cheggy is the current market leader in Europe, accounting for roughly half of the current in-ovo sexed layer population. However, the technology only works for brown layers, limiting its applicability to market’s like the US where layers are primarily white.
The Foundation for Food and Agriculture (FFAR) announced three finalists for the Egg-Tech Prize, a research competition to develop in-ovo sexing technology suitable for the mass market. The finalists were In Ovo, one of the five in-ovo sexing companies currently in the market in Europe; HatchTech, a hatchery equipment company that owns in-ovo sexing companies Respeggt and PLANTegg; and SensIT Ventures, an American in-ovo sexing company currently in the R&D phase. A prize of roughly $500,000 was awarded to each of these three finalists. You can read our full coverage of the Egg-Tech Prize here.
New Research
Innovate Animal Ag released the first ever in-ovo sexing market penetration report which showed that at the end of Q3 2023, 15% of the EU’s flock of commercial layers had been sexed in-ovo. This number is expected to grow rapidly, especially after this quarter’s 23% increase in global capacity. In just five years since the first commercial machines hit the market, in-ovo sexing companies have shown a remarkable ability to meet the demands of the European consumer.
A detailed study conducted by the German government on chicken embryo consciousness was published in the peer-reviewed journal Animals. This study, which was previously only available in summary form, served as the basis for Germany’s decision to use the thirteenth day of incubation as the cutoff point after which culling is illegal. The entire study is accessible here: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3.
Two new surveys were released this quarter on European consumers’ views on male chick-culling. The first of these studies was conducted by the European commission with an impressive sample size of over 26,000 citizens. It found that 75% of European Union citizens consider the practice of male chick culling unacceptable, and that majorities in 20 of the 27 EU member states think that male chicks should not be killed, even if it leads to an increase in the price of eggs. The second study focused on UK consumers and found that 82% were uncomfortable with the practice of chick-culling. Innovate Animal Ag fully reviewed the findings of these surveys, which you can read here.
Check out our Overview page for more information on in-ovo sexing. This page will be kept up to date with new developments as soon they occur.
