"We will commercially launch the completely 100 percent vegetarian eggs both in the domestic market and also export them across the world in a couple of months from now," S Hariharan, general manager, operations of SKM Egg Products Ltd, said.

The company is already exporting 100 percent vegetarian egg powder, egg yolk powder and egg albumen powder to as many as 27 countries in the world, including Europe and Japan.

So what is a vegetarian egg?

Chicks aged between zero and eight weeks are brought to poultry farms and bred till up to 72 weeks when they become 'layers'.

Normally, each layer lays about 300 eggs in poultry farms. However, these eggs are not totally vegetarian because the hens are fed fishmeal (dry fish powder) as a protein supplement.

However, SKM Egg Products Ltd, located aptly on the Gandhiji Road in Erode, claims all the 'egg-laying birds' in its contract farms are not fed any 'animal-based food'.

Instead of fishmeal, soya powder is added to the poultry feed as the protein supplement.