March 2, 2023

 

Taiwan expects eggs shortage to end by late March

 

Chen Chi-chung, Taiwan's Council of Agriculture (COA) Minister, said he expects the egg shortage in Taiwan to end by late March after the government announced short and long-term measures to address the issue, Focus Taiwan reported.

 

Data from the COA showed that daily egg output in Taiwan began to drop in December 2022, and declined to 112,000 crates in late February (each crate contains 200 eggs).

The agency said the egg shortage was due to the spread of bird flu and large temperature swings in the past few months.

 

Chen said Taiwan will import up to 5 million eggs from Australia by the end of March to meet the current daily deficit of 500,000-800,000 eggs.

 

The eggs will be allocated to food processors, so that they can release their stocks of of locally grown eggs to meet domestic consumption. The first batch of 360,000 Australian eggs arrived on February 28.

 

For this year, the COA has set aside NTD 1.8 billion (US$60 million) to assist regional poultry farms in updating and modernising their operations. Chen noted that more information will be released on Friday.

 

The government programme, which will cost NT$3.3 billion over three years, aims to strengthen the local poultry industry's resistance to bird flu outbreaks in the context of climate change.

 

the COA has earmarked NTD 1.8 billion (~US$60 million; NTD 1 = US$0.033) this year to help local poultry farms renovate and modernize their operations. This is a key measure to achieve full self-sufficiency, Chen said.

 

The modernization plan forms part of a three-year NTD 3.3 billion (~US$107 million) government programme to increase the local poultry industry's resilience to outbreaks of bird flu amid the impact of global climate change.

 

-      Focus Taiwan