August 27, 2012
Vietnam's ministry of industry and trade has permitted import 500,000 eggs, a move which has significant impact on the local egg production industry.
Vietnam has commitments to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), among them having to grant import quotas of 360,000 eggs per year, and the number of eggs increasing by 5% per year. The quota has been in place in since 2007.
The eggs have to be cooked through before importation.
The move has left farmers stupefied, given that poultry eggs have been in a state of oversupply and the prices have been decreasing.
Nguyen Thanh Son, Deputy Director of the Animal Husbandry Department of MARD, said that poultry egg prices have dropped by 47-48 %, farmers are incurring a loss of VND500 (US$0.02) per egg.
In the first six months of 2012, about four billion poultry eggs were produced, a 5% increase in comparison with the same period of the last year.
In the north, chicken eggs have dropped to VND900 (US$0.04). Meanwhile, merchandise duck eggs have seen the price drop to VND1500 (US$0.07).
The prices are even lower in the south, pushing farmers out the market and many households giving up farming.
With many households giving up farming, and the accompanying recent global increase in feed prices, the Vietnamese government is worried that domestic food shortages may be lurking in the future.
A major concern has been raised that with the permission to import cooked-through eggs, enterprises would import processed eggs in masses from China, which they would use to make moon cakes and other kinds of ready-made foodstuff products.
