Eggs are no longer just a source of nutrition in Bangladesh but a pillar of food security, jobs and the rural economy, A K M Humayun Kabir, a teacher and researcher at Chattogram Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, writes in a Prothom Alo column marking the 30th World Egg Day on 9 October, whose theme this year was "Protein that powers and protects". The views are the writer's own.
Citing the Department of Livestock Services, he writes that the country produced 608 crore (6.08 billion) eggs in 2010-11 and about 2,441 crore (24.41 billion) in 2024-25, nearly four times as many, against an estimated demand of 1,850 crore. Availability is now about 137 eggs per person a year. Yet according to a 2025 national survey by UNICEF and the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, about 65 percent of children aged 6 to 23 months still live in severe food poverty. He urges adding eggs to children's complementary food after six months of age.
On nutrition, he cites a study published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics in January 2026 that pooled data on 99,453 people from 21 surveys and found eating around 50 to 60 grams of egg a day linked with a lower risk of age-related cognitive decline. He adds his own caution that this is not a guarantee, and that eggs should be eaten as part of a balanced diet, not treated as a miracle food.
On cholesterol, he cites a 2025 study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that found saturated fat, rather than dietary cholesterol, to be the main driver of harmful blood cholesterol. A 50-gram egg, he writes, provides more than six grams of protein and 70 to 75 kilocalories, and brown and white eggs are nutritionally the same: shell colour depends on the breed of hen.
For farmers, he points to a 2025 Bangladesh Bank study which found that marginal poultry farmers carry almost all of the market's financial and price risk. Rising feed prices, middlemen and weak transport mean farmers sometimes lose out and consumers sometimes pay too much, so he calls for stable poultry feed prices and a more transparent supply chain.
Looking at the challenges, he notes that Bangladesh's heat and humidity reduce laying and thin the eggshell, and recommends heat-tolerant farm management, biosecurity, and biogas and solar power from farm waste. He also argues for a processing industry for liquid egg, pasteurised ingredients and egg powder, which could serve bakeries, hotels and the garment sector and open the way to exports.
Photo: Evan-Amos / Wikimedia Commons (public domain); an illustrative picture of brown and white eggs
Source: Prothom Alo
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