With a hot-rolled steel sheet for electrical steel sheet production having a scale layer on the surface, where the surface of the steel sheet has a lightness L* as defined in JIS Z 8781-4: 2013 satisfying 30≤L*≤50, and chromaticities a* and b* as defined in JIS Z 8781-4: 2013 satisfying −1≤a*≤2 and −5≤b*≤3 respectively, and with one end portion in the longitudinal direction of a coil as a reference, a color difference ΔEab* as defined in JIS Z 8781-4: 2013 at the central portion and at the opposite end portion satisfies ΔEab*≤8, it is possible to obtain a grain-oriented electrical steel sheet where the variation of properties in a product coil is small.