Dubai: The marketing wing of America’s vast egg industry was out in force on Sunday, patrolling large sections of the meat and poultry hall at Gulfood, the food expo taking place in Dubai this week.

Tasked with promoting US eggs both at home and abroad, the American Egg Board (AEB) describes itself as the “research, educational, and promotional division of the American egg industry.” It is entirely funded by farmers, who pool their money to pay for the work.

Anne L. Alonzo, the president and chief executive of AEB, says that the focus on exports is a new priority for the group.

“There’s a lot of opportunity worldwide,” she said, adding: “Eggs are just very sought after and valued around the world.”

Going on to describe them as affordable and a quality source of protein, Alonzo said that the demand for eggs in the Middle East was fuelled in part by a switch to healthier diets, and an increase in people eating out at restaurants, where eggs are a popular ingredient.

“Across the Middle East, we saw table eggs grow by 88 per cent, and egg products grow by 83 per cent,” Alonzo said.

Whole eggs, she added, were the seventh most imported food into Dubai last year.

“We’ve seen stellar growth,” she said.

The UAE consumes around two billion eggs per year, 60 per cent of which are imported into Dubai, with only 40 per cent sourced locally.

As a result, Alonzo says that the AEB has identified the Middle East, and the UAE specifically, as a large market, with a huge opportunity.

Avian flu

But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing.

In March 2017, a US farm in Tennessee was struck by a case of avian flu, killing 73,500 birds and prompting egg and poultry producers to ramp up security procedures to avoid triggering import bans from other countries.

Nonetheless, South Korea and Japan slapped restrictions on poultry coming out of the US in response to the outbreak.

The worst known outbreak of avian flu, also known as avian influenza, occurred between 2014 and 2015, killing about 50 million birds, most of which were reported to be egg-laying hens in Iowa.

“Thankfully,” Alonzo said in response to a question about the outbreaks, “there have been no incidents in the past 10 to 12 months.”

Instead, she pointed to the US’ high levels of quality and safety, insisting that all eggs were “washed, sanitised and shipped within hours of laying.”

Alonzo said that producers had doubled down on biosecurity measures since the last incident.

The problem isn’t confined to the US, however. Earlier this month, an Iranian news agency described how 40 per cent of the nation’s poultry had to be slaughtered amid rising cases of avian flu.

In light of the global issues faced by the poultry and egg industry, Alonzo is confident that consumers in the Middle East will flock to US eggs due to the more stringent safety standards and regulations.

“In 2016, we saw a 27 per cent increase in the volume of egg exports,” she said, adding: “We’re very confident that the Middle East will be a strong market for us in the future.”