The Council of Agriculture clarified that it did not intervene in the negotiation of egg prices and respected the production and sales market mechanism
Reporter Wang Zhicheng / Taipei Report
Egg producers and marketers held a meeting a few days ago and wanted to increase the price of eggs by about 2 to 3 yuan, but under official pressure, they decided to freeze the increase for a week, which caused dissatisfaction among the participating egg merchants and egg farmers. The Taipei City Egg Merchants Association threatened that if the freeze rises again, it will announce an indefinite closing and no further quotations. The Council of Agriculture clarified on the 19th that it did not intervene in the negotiation of egg prices and fully respected the mechanism of production, sales and market.
Egg prices have risen twice in three weeks, and reports of egg merchants robbing goods have aroused the concern of the fair. The continuous shortage of eggs puts the basic egg price negotiated by egg farmers and egg merchants on a weekly basis to the test.
Members of the Egg Price Committee said that the meeting last Saturday night decided not to raise egg prices, but the discussion process was “not very pleasant.” An industry representative said, “The government hopes to wait until the next batch of imported eggs comes in before discussing whether to raise the price,” causing dissatisfaction among other industry players. Participants said that if the situation persists in the next meeting, they will stop quoting and negotiate egg prices, and let everything return to free trading. “But if this happens, the market will be more chaotic and it will not be good for consumers.” They may become egg farmers. , Egg merchants, and consumers all lose.
Wu Tianfu, chairman of the Egg Marketing Cooperative of the Republic of China, said that some egg merchants raise prices for egg farmers in order to grab eggs, but the wholesale price will not increase. From the 23rd, Australian eggs will be shipped to Taiwan one by one by air, and more than 2 million Turkish eggs will be shipped to Taiwan after April. The industry will hold a meeting to discuss not to raise the price for the time being, and observe how the market demand for imported eggs supplements. Reconsideration.
Egg merchants pointed out that the cost of egg production is soaring now, coupled with the high risk of breeding caused by the bird flu epidemic, and the yield is poor. Some egg farmers are producing at a loss. “If the price does not rise, the egg farmers will not make a profit.”
In this regard, Jiang Wenquan, deputy director of the Animal Husbandry Department of the Council of Agriculture, said that the Council of Agriculture has not been involved in the negotiation and decision of the egg price between the producer and the seller, nor has it sent personnel to participate, and fully respects the handling of both parties and the market mechanism; however, if individual opinion leaders and industry professionals Ask the Council of Agriculture about production and sales information, and will provide production and sales information and relevant explanations on market conditions.
Jiang Wenquan emphasized that there is no unified wholesale market for eggs, and naturally there is no “market rest” mechanism. If the Egg Price Committee decides not to set the origin price and the wholesale price, it will only return to bargaining between buyers and sellers; however, if any business operators engage in joint behavior that violates the market mechanism, relevant units will definitely be asked to investigate and deal with it.
Eggs are also looking forward to the arrival of imported eggs as soon as possible to alleviate the egg shortage. Under such circumstances, it is even more impossible for egg merchants to hoard eggs. “There are no eggs to sell, so how can there be eggs to hoard?”Members of the price committee said that it is still difficult to find egg sources, which has led to confusion in black market prices. The current announced production price is still 45.5 yuan per catty and 910 yuan per box; but egg merchants are also worried about egg shortages. To supply customers, with “it’s good if you have it, the price is not a problem” and constantly increase the price to buy eggs to do money-losing business
