Driven by high egg prices in the first half of this year, the population of laying hens increased in the third quarter.
According to the Livestock Trend Survey for the Third Quarter of 2026 released by the Statistics Korea on the 23rd, the number of laying hens stood at 86.544 million, up 5.461 million or 6.7 percent compared to the same period last year.
The number of newly introduced chicks in breeding facilities increased, with those under three months of age seeing a notable 24.8 percent surge.
Analysts suggest that as egg prices remained high throughout the first half of the year, more farms began raising chicks recently.
Meanwhile, the population of broilers raised for meat decreased by 4.113 million to 90.139 million.
The Statistics Korea explained that this decline was influenced by the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza, which continued from last year into the first half of this year.
Cattle and pig populations also dropped due to the impacts of foot-and-mouth disease and African swine fever, respectively.
The number of Korean beef cattle and dairy cattle combined fell by 147,000 from a year earlier to 3.318 million, while dairy cattle decreased by 11,000 to 362,000.
The pig population dropped by 261,000 to 10.776 million.
Conversely, the duck population increased by 72,000 to 9.262 million.
(Photo: Provided by Yonhap News TV, Yonhap News)
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