Surge in Ukrainian and Turkish Egg Imports Reshapes Poland’s Egg Market Balance

Poland’s egg imports surged 73% in 2025 to 52,500 tonnes, driven mainly by supplies from Ukraine and Turkey, while exports remained high at 238,400 tonnes. The shift marks a structural change for one of the EU’s top egg exporters, with growing reliance on external suppliers to balance domestic shortages caused by avian disease and tight EU supply.

For traders and food industry buyers, the move signals a more import‑elastic Polish market, with local prices increasingly shaped by international egg availability and freight economics rather than purely domestic production.

Headline

Ukrainian and Turkish Eggs Flood Poland as Imports Jump 73%, Redrawing EU Trade and Price Dynamics

Introduction

New data from Poland’s National Chamber of Poultry and Feed Producers (KIPDiP), cited by local business media on 26 April 2026, show that Poland imported 52.5 thousand tonnes of eggs and egg products in 2025, up 73% year‑on‑year, against exports of 238.4 thousand tonnes. Poland thus remains a major net exporter but is rapidly expanding its role as an egg importer to stabilise internal supply.

The bulk of the inflow originates from Ukraine and Turkey, in line with EU‑level trade data showing a 60% year‑on‑year increase in extra‑EU egg imports from Ukraine in 2025 and a sharp rise in shipments from other third countries. Avian influenza and other poultry diseases in several EU production hubs, including Poland, have tightened domestic availability and pushed processors to seek more competitively priced external supply.

🌍 Immediate Market Impact

The sudden acceleration in imports is already altering price formation in Poland’s egg market. KIPDiP notes that world markets are currently oversupplied with eggs and prices are at very low, in some cases record‑low, levels, while EU prices only recently began to soften. As imported volumes increase, domestic Polish prices are expected to converge more closely with international benchmarks, particularly for industrial and processing grades.

On logistics, the growing share of Ukrainian and Turkish eggs is boosting utilisation of east–west road corridors and Black Sea–to–EU maritime and intermodal routes. For Ukrainian exporters, eggs have become an important outlet to the EU, with total EU imports from Ukraine rising from about 75,000 tonnes in 2024 to over 120,000 tonnes in 2025. Turkish product complements these flows, especially in shell eggs, creating more diversified sourcing options for Polish processors but also intensifying competition for domestic producers.

📦 Supply Chain Disruptions

The primary disruption is not physical congestion but a rapid rebalancing of supply chains. Recurrent avian influenza outbreaks across parts of Europe have culled laying hen flocks and constrained local egg availability, forcing Polish buyers to pivot quickly to third‑country origins. This shift increases dependence on cross‑border logistics, veterinary controls and border inspection capacity.

Higher import penetration can also reshape contract structures. More Polish food manufacturers and egg processors are reportedly engaging in forward agreements with Ukrainian and Turkish suppliers to secure volumes at internationally competitive prices, potentially reducing the market share of smaller domestic farms that rely on spot sales. Over time, import reliance may mitigate domestic price spikes linked to regional disease outbreaks but could also expose the Polish market to external shocks such as trade policy changes, sanitary restrictions or transport disruptions in the Black Sea and overland corridors.

📊 Commodities Potentially Affected

• Shell eggs for consumption – Directly impacted as imported Ukrainian and Turkish eggs compete with Polish production in retail and foodservice channels, putting downward pressure on wholesale prices once disease‑related shocks fade.
• Egg products (liquid, powder) – Processors sourcing bulk egg mass find more options from third countries; extra‑EU egg‑equivalent imports into the EU jumped over 50% in 2025, increasing substitution possibilities in industrial applications.
• Poultry feed demand – If imports structurally displace part of local egg output, Polish demand for layer feed could soften at the margin, affecting compound feed and grain usage patterns in key producing regions.
• Competing animal proteins – Cheaper and more abundant eggs may modestly cap demand growth or price upside for alternative proteins in the Polish retail basket, especially in low‑income segments sensitive to price changes.

🌎 Regional Trade Implications

For Ukraine, stronger egg exports to the EU, including Poland, are part of a broader expansion of animal protein shipments as the sector recovers capacity. Recent dashboards confirm Ukraine as the EU’s dominant extra‑EU egg supplier, accounting for the lion’s share of the 188,700 tonnes of extra‑EU egg imports in 2025. This reinforces Ukraine’s position in regional protein trade despite ongoing disruptions in other commodity flows.

Turkey’s emergence as a fast‑growing supplier of shell eggs to the EU, with notable sales into Italy and a visible increase in direct exports to Poland, introduces another competitive origin into the Central European market. Within the EU, Romania is highlighted by KIPDiP as a rising competitor, with increasing exports of eggs into Poland, including for retail sale. In this configuration, Poland shifts from being almost exclusively an exporter to acting as a key redistribution and balancing hub, importing from Ukraine, Turkey and Romania while continuing to ship significant volumes to the Netherlands, Germany, France, Czechia and the UK.

🧭 Market Outlook

KIPDiP expects egg imports to become a normal and permanent feature of Poland’s market, similar to exports, implying that domestic prices will increasingly track global supply–demand rather than reacting sharply to localised disease events. With global egg markets currently oversupplied and international prices low, the chamber anticipates that, once the recent shock from outbreaks in Mazovia eases, Polish prices will continue to trend lower from post‑Easter levels, albeit still modestly above last year’s in many segments.

In the near term, traders should monitor EU sanitary developments, any changes to trade rules or safeguard measures on Ukrainian eggs, and the pace of Turkish and other third‑country shipments (e.g. North Macedonia, China) into the EU. Volatility could re‑emerge if disease pressure intensifies in major exporting countries or if policy debates over the impact of low‑cost imports on EU producers lead to new regulatory constraints.

CMB Market Insight

The surge of Ukrainian and Turkish eggs into Poland marks a notable structural adjustment in Central European egg trade. Poland is leveraging external supply to maintain its export position while cushioning its domestic market against production shocks, effectively turning into a more open and price‑responsive hub within the EU egg complex.

For commodity traders and industry buyers, this means broader origin choice, heightened competition and tighter arbitrage between Polish and global prices. Strategic positioning will hinge on managing sanitary risk, monitoring policy moves on third‑country access to the EU market, and optimising logistics along the Ukrainian and Turkish supply corridors that are now integral to Poland’s egg balance.