TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taipei City Egg Commercial Association announced on Sunday (March 5) that it decided to increase the wholesale price of eggs by NT$3 per Taiwan catty (600 grams) starting Monday (March 6) from NT$52 (US$1.70) to NT$55, a new high.
The Taipei City Egg Commercial Association said that due to the recent decrease in egg production and particularly good sales at the end of the year, the imbalance between production, sales, and supply, it has decided to raise the price of eggs to "reflect the market situation," reported Liberty Times. It said that it took this measure to stabilize the supply and demand of production and sales and stabilize the market.
Meanwhile, the farm gate price of eggs will be hiked from NT$42.5 per Taiwan catty to NT$45.5 starting on Thursday (March 9).
According to the latest statistics from the Council of Agriculture (COA), the current daily output of eggs is 112,000 boxes (200 eggs per box), which falls short of demand by 500,000 to 800,000 eggs per day. In order to solve the short-term supply shortage, the COA launched an emergency effort to import five million eggs from Australia in March.
The COA stated that five air delivery orders of 360,000 eggs have been placed with Australian suppliers and one batch has arrived so far and more are expected this month. An additional 3.2 million eggs are to be shipped to Taiwan by sea.