TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Egg prices have plummeted and production is so high that eggs have been used to feed pigs.
Domestic egg demand has been sluggish, leading to five price reductions at the production level in the past two months, per Liberty Times. Legislators are concerned about the imbalance between supply and demand, with eggs so plentiful that they are fed to pigs.
Consumers are also unhappy that restaurants and snack shops have not lowered their prices accordingly. On Thursday (June 13), Agriculture Minister Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) urged food establishments such as breakfast shops to reduce egg prices and mentioned plans to expedite the elimination of low-producing hens.
During a session of the Economics Committee, Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) said there is an oversupply of eggs despite efforts by producers to eliminate low-producing hens. There are 35.69 million laying hens producing 121,700 cartons of eggs daily, while the average daily demand in Taiwan is around 120,000 cartons, said Yang.
Yang said feeding surplus eggs to pigs highlights the imbalance between production and demand. She also questioned why an oversupply has arisen despite spending nearly NT$1 billion last year to import eggs from Brazil, Mexico, and other countries.
Chen said one reason for the low demand is the high price of eggs at the retail level. He pledged that the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) would encourage decreasing retail egg prices to make them more attractive to consumers.
On the production side, Chen said the ministry will use policy incentives to expedite the elimination of low-producing and old hens. In a press briefing, Chen said daily production is about 24.32 million eggs, approximately 320,000 more than the estimated domestic demand.
Since the egg price increase last year, the corresponding decrease in consumption has not significantly rebounded. One reason for this is that retail prices did not decrease in tandem with the reduction in production costs, leading to consumer dissatisfaction, said Chen.
