Summary
Original research conducted by Innovate Animal Ag shows that as of June 1, 2026:
40% of the EU’s commercial egg layer flock was sexed with in-ovo technology–a 6-point penetration increase from April 1, 2025.
Since 2021, over 281 million male embryos have been removed before hatching globally.
In Europe, in-ovo sexing technology has reached a production rate of 100 million female chicks per year, climbing from 500k chicks per month in 2021 to well over 8 million female chicks per month by the publication of this report, a CAGR of over 75%.
In-ovo sexing is beginning its market-based rollout in the US with over 4% of the country’s commercial layer flock having publicly announced a transition to use the technology as existing flocks are retired.
In Switzerland, where in-ovo sexing technology kicked off in 2025, in-ovo sexing penetration climbed rapidly and now sits at around 85 to 100% of the country’s layer flock. In Norway, in-ovo sexing has hit a 52% market penetration.
The global penetration of in-ovo sexing is forecasted to continue its sharp growth in the next few years, led by expansion in the US, continued strength in Europe as a consequence of Italy’s ban on male chick culling, growth in markets where the technology has recently entered such as Australia and Brazil, and potential penetration into greenfield markets like Canada and China.
Market Penetration
Innovate Animal Ag estimated the market penetration of in-ovo sexing technology globally by combining data from proprietary surveys of the technology suppliers, expert interviews, and other publicly available information.
Given there are some areas of uncertainty, we estimate that of the 328 to 346 million commercial laying hens in production in the EU, 125 to 142 million of them were sexed with in-ovo technology, implying a market penetration of 36.2 to 43.3%, with a base case estimate of 40%. This marks a 6 percentage point increase from April 2025, when the market penetration in the EU was found to be 34%. This remarkable jump lines up with a rapid increase in in-ovo sexing capacity between late 2023 and mid 2025 throughout Europe.
Note that previously Innovate Animal Ag estimated a market penetration of 28% as of April 2025. In this report, we’ve revised this number upward, based on a more refined estimate of the total layer flock size at that time.
In the last 5 years, around 740 million hatching eggs were run through in-ovo sexing machines, or around 5 hatching eggs per second globally. Of these 740 million hatching eggs, roughly 281 million were male embryos removed before hatching–the rest were females, infertile eggs, or unviable embryos.
EU Market Penetration of In-Ovo Sexing as of June 1, 2026
281 Million Male Chicks In-Ovo Sexed Globally as of June 1, 2026
The pace of the rollout of in-ovo sexing technology in the EU has been substantial, demonstrating the ability for the technology to meet the needs of the largest markets. In the last 4 years in the EU, female chicks produced per year with the technology grew at a compound annual growth rate of 74%. The technology produced 92 million female chicks in the 12 months leading up to June 2026 and at the time of publication had a monthly production rate that exceeded 100 million female chicks per year.
There are also five non-EU countries that have in-ovo sexing technology—the United States, Australia, Brazil, Switzerland, and Norway.
In 2023, Norway became the first country to adopt in-ovo sexing for its local egg market without regulatory pressure, and its market penetration has now reached 45 to 60%. Tone Steinsland, the owner and operator of the largest hatchery in the country told us last year that “one aim behind the investment was also to help the whole egg industry in Norway increase the competitiveness of the Norwegian eggs. Sooner or later, we believe our move to introduce in-ovo sexing to Norway, will lead to an industry standard and that we will be one of the first countries where 100% of the chicks are in-ovo sorted.” In early 2026, the Norwegian Meat and Poultry Association announced that they will completely phase out male culling by July 2027, and our data implies they are on track to meet this goal.
In Switzerland, poultry industry stakeholders also decided to make a full transition to using in-ovo sexing technology. In mid 2025, Orbem installed its machines in the two principle layer hatcheries, Animalco and Prodavi. These hatcheries have since produced 3.37 million female chicks, with an estimated 3.12 million still in production. This figure represents a 85 to 100% penetration of the country's layer flock given uncertainties about flock size and mortality rates.
Female Day-Old Chicks Produced in the EU with In-Ovo Sexing
In-Ovo Sexing Market Penetration in Switzerland and Norway
United States’ hatcheries now have six installed in-ovo sexing machines. Three Cheggys from AAT at Hy-Line hatcheries, two significant Orbem installations, and a Seleggt Circuit at Hendrix’s Nebraska hatchery. Eggs from in-ovo sexed hens are now available to US consumers under NestFresh’s successful Humanely Hatched label and from Kipster. Early adoption of the technology from these specialty producers have prompted all major producers to consider how the introduction of this new production method will affect their brand positioning. At the time of publication, other specialty producers such as Sauder’s eggs, the rest of NestFresh’s brand portfolio, and the largest specialty producer, Vital Farms, have announced flock-wide transitions to in-ovo sexing. Taken together, these decisions represent over 4% of the US commercial layer flock opting to utilize the technology as their flocks retire.
In mid-2025, Brazil became the first country in Latin America to install in-ovo sexing technology in a partnership between Cheggy, the egg producer Raiar Orgânicos, and the Hy-Line do Brasil hatchery. Raiar intends to use the technology for their entire flock, which today stands at over 400 thousand layers. Raiar was delivered its first in-ovo sexed flock in mid-2025 and table eggs produced with in-ovo sexing are now available to Brazilian consumers though the market penetration of the technology remains below 1% of the commercial layer flock.
Australia became the latest market to adopt the technology when the country's main layer hatchery, Specialized Breeders Australia (SBA), installed a Cheggy machine. A representative from SBA, which produces around 70% of the country’s day-old chicks, noted that they “are pleased to offer [their] customers the opportunity to differentiate themselves by utilising a technology developed and refined over more than 15 years," and that “over the past two years, we’ve had growing conversations with customers, regulators, and NGOs about the future of animal welfare in layer production. This step reflects those discussions — and our ongoing commitment to supporting choice, transparency, and progress across the industry.” The machine is now in use and the first in-ovo sexed chicks were delivered in mid-2026 to the egg producer McLean Farms who will start bringing the eggs to market in late-2026.
Forecast
Global adoption of in-ovo sexing is expected to continue its increase over the next several years.
Europe
Growth in the European Union over the next two years will be primarily driven by Italy’s prohibition on male culling which will take effect in January 2027. This reform, coupled with the regulations in Germany and France as well as the industry-led phase out of male culling in the Netherlands will mean a total of 50.9% of the EU’s human population will live in a country that has transitioned to in-ovo sexing for its egg supply. Chicks sexed after the prohibition begins will replace the retiring layer flock over a roughly 18 month period. The legal change will therefore appear as a progressive increase in penetration rather than a single step on the effective date. Assuming no regulatory or technical adjustments to the start date, our base forecast places EU commercial-flock penetration at approximately 51% by July 2028, with a range of 47% to 55%. In July 2026, the EU released its clearest political commitment yet to end male culling in its Livestock Strategy Report. The Commission states that it intends to release legislation by the end of 2026 that is likely to phase out the practice EU-wide. However, absent any additional market-led adoption of the technology or movement towards an EU-wide prohibition on the practice, it is possible we’ll see a slow down in adoption as the technology reaches a saturation point in the EU.
Analysis
The rapid adoption of in-ovo sexing technology in the last few years benefits from the structural advantage that in-ovo sexing sits at the very top of the egg supply chain. While Europe has thousands of farms and hundreds of egg packers, it relies on only a small number of hatcheries. Equipping just a handful of those facilities can therefore transform an entire market—Switzerland and Norway, for instance, each need only two machines to effectively eliminate culling from their national egg supply.
Unit economics have also improved markedly since the technology’s launch. R&D advances have made each machine faster and more accurate, but an equally important driver has been the way early hatcheries have reengineered their workflows. These machines don’t operate in a vacuum; they slot into facilities where operational procedures were refined over decades. The machines fundamentally reshape how eggs move through the hatchery, and creative new procedures have allowed hatcheries to capitalize on the technology’s labor and energy-saving advantages. As deployment spreads, these lessons will transfer to new regions, and manufacturers will benefit from both these new lessons and the technology’s economies of scale. Taken together, we anticipate that these factors will keep the adoption curve steep.
EU Market Penetration Forecast for In-Ovo Sexing
Methodology
The purpose of this study is to understand the market penetration of in-ovo sexing globally by collecting data on the number of commercial laying hens currently in production that were sexed in-ovo as of June 1, 2026.
Innovate Animal Ag asked each of the commercially available in-ovo sexing technology suppliers (AAT, Nectra, Orbem, Omegga, and Seleggt) how many in-ovo sexed hens were produced between December 1, 2024 and May 31, 2026 using their technology. These dates were selected because 18 months is the typical production cycle of a commercial layer in the EU.
Data provided from the companies was aggregated and anonymized in order to mitigate any competitive sensitivity from publicly sharing data. Over 90% of the estimate was generated using this self-reported data. Some technology suppliers were unable to provide the data to the researchers for the purpose of this study, in which case, we estimated production data from publicly accessible press releases, KAT data, expert interviews, and hatchery production estimates.
Some companies were only able to provide the number of hatching eggs their machines processed, and in these cases we applied a hatching egg to pullet ratio range of 2.45 to 2.8, based on a study by one in-ovo sexing technology provider. We also assumed an annual mortality rate of 3.3-6.6%, which works out to 5 to 10% for the 18 month assumed lifespan and is consistent with Lohmann, Hy-Line, and Hendrix Genetics management guide norms.
Our market penetration is based on an estimate of the EU commercial layer flock of 328 million to 346 million hens and 371 to 388 million hens if including the backyard layer hen flocks. To calculate these figures we used the following method. The EU publishes registered maximum hen capacity for layer hen facilities constructed to house more than 350 hens. As of publication, the latest figure was 401mm hen-spots. However, this represents maximum capacity and not active flock size. To estimate an average utilization of the maximum spots we divided total egg production from 2020-2024 by an estimate for eggs per hen per year of 285, 295 and 300 to derive an estimated flock size for those years and compared that to the registered maximum capacity. These numbers reflect a range of potential flock-wide lay-rates which differ depending on housing, breed, and many other factors. We arrived at our capacity utilization estimates of 81.9%, 83.3%, and 86% for a June 1, 2026 commercial flock size estimates of 328.67mm, 334.24mm, and 345.96mm that we use for our market penetration calculation. We also compared this utilization ratio, satisfactorily, to the handful of countries that Eurostat publishes actual harmonized total layer flock count. Applying this utilization ratio to our prior market penetration reports results in an adjustment of the April 1, 2025 commercial market penetration from 28 to 34% and the April 1, 2024 market penetration from 20% to 23%.
For a subset of countries, Eurostat reports both the total layer hen flock and the layer hen flock above 350 hens. By subtracting these two metrics we estimated the total quantity of EU hens in backyard production at ~42mm.
Australia
Over the coming years in-ovo sexing is likely to be rolled out more broadly in the Australian market. The market exhibits a number of characteristics that make a full transition more likely. First, the market has strong consumer fundamentals and demand for specialty egg production is already significant. Second, there is a concentrated retailer, hatchery, and egg producer environment. Woolworths and Coles account for around 80% of retailer revenues and have a demonstrated history of improving animal welfare across their supply chain. Interest in in-ovo sexing from even one of these retailers will produce demand for millions of in-ovo sexed chicks. Similarly, a small number of egg producers command a similar market share, and any movement towards adoption from one of them could drive behavior for the whole market.
Brazil
The specialty egg market in Brazil has grown quickly over the last decade, and our consumer survey findings suggest that there is a strong and growing business case for the technology to be deployed in the market. Raiar plans on growing its use of the technology from its flock of 400 thousand layers to more than 2 million layers over the coming years. Additionally, Mantiqueria, which represents around 10-15% of Brazil’s layer flock and a handful of smaller producers have publicly discussed transitioning to the technology. A variety of hatcheries have also expressed interest in the technology, primarily as a way to increase the use of in-ovo vaccination for layers. In late summer 2026, the country will have its first public conference devoted to in-ovo sexing with producers, in-ovo sexing technology companies, and government officials to discuss how to scale the technology from its current use in the speciality sector.
Other Markets
There are a few other greenfield markets where the adoption of in-ovo sexing technology is possible in the coming years. The adoption of in-ovo sexing in Canada will likely be effected during the next update to the National Farm Animal Care Council’s Layer Code. Work on the updated code is set to begin by 2027and the council is expected to incorporate in-ovo sexing technology into its standards. In addition, Canadian company MatrixSpec has partnered with Sanovo to see if the company’s Hypereye in-ovo sexing technology can scale to the needs of a modern hatchery. Adoption in other large countries like China and Japan is contingent on technological breakthroughs by their domestic in-ovo sexing technology companies. In both countries, technology conglomerates have partnered with hatcheries to design and test commercial scale in-ovo sexing systems. As of publication, none of these technologies have clearly been put into significant commercial use but could be in the coming years if the commercial R&D is successful.
United States
The most notable growth in the coming years might be in the US as the market matures. There are now six in-ovo sexing machine installations with the capacity to sex millions of chicks per year each. While current penetration remains under 1%, producers representing over 4% of the commercial layer flock have already announced a full transition to using the technology over the coming years. Thus far, adoption is primarily concentrated in specialty eggs where producers have been better positioned to communicate the welfare benefits of the technology. Though the speciality egg category in the US is a growing and substantial share of the market, the infrastructure and initiative supporting a wider adoption is nevertheless beginning to emerge.
The United Egg Producers and Certified Humane have both launched third party certifications for in-ovo sexing. Stakeholders from across the supply chain have also now come to the agreement that the technology has improved greatly in the last few years and is now ready to handle the largest volumes of US hatcheries. Additionally, early legislative efforts like the EGG SAVE Act are attempting to offer tax credits to facilitate purchasing the machines, in order to improve in-ovo sexing’s economics. Finally, retailers like Walmart have included in-ovo sexing as a focus area in their latest egg supplier guidelines. These developments reduce some of the practical barriers to adoption and indicate that interest is more widespread than solely the speciality market. Though the current economics are very feasible for consumers, negotiating new contracts, figuring out how to distribute the price adjustments throughout the supply chain, and educating consumers about the technology all take time and are the current focus of industry conversations. Given the uncertainties here, we opted not to make a numerical forecast for the US market, although we believe growing consumer awareness and cross-segment demand in the US will drive significant growth in penetration in the years to come.
Elsewhere in Europe, Switzerland has comparatively little room for additional growth because the full transition to in-ovo sexing is complete. In the coming months, as the last Swiss layer flocks retire and are replaced by new in-ovo sexed pullets, the country will be come the first non-EU country to have fully eliminated selective male chick culling. Norway will also likely hit 100% market penetration in the coming year. The country’s two main hatcheries, Steinsland and Sirevåg Rugeri have both installed enough in-ovo sexing capacity to continue converting their remaining conventional production as the July 2027 industry phase-out target approaches.