March 8, 2021

Thai government supports egg exports on oversupply

The Thai government is planning to speed up egg exports to cope with a domestic oversupply, Bangkok Post reported.

According to Wattanasak Sur-iam, director-general of the Internal Trade Department, with a sharp fall in foreign tourist arrivals and more students learning online as part of COVID-19 protocols, local egg consumption has plunged to about 38 million eggs a day.

Egg production in Thailand stands at 42 million eggs a day. Retail prices are lower than farmers' production cost, which averages 2.70 baht (US$0.088; 1 baht = US$0.033) per egg.

Farmgate prices of eggs in mixed sizes are quoted an average of 2.50 baht (~US$0.081; 1 baht = US$0.033) each, down from 2.80 baht prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Wattanasak, to help tackle the domestic oversupply, the Egg Board in late February agreed to provide 51 million baht allocated from the farmers' assistance fund to support farmers, traders and exporters with management costs such as packing, transport and egg grading, at a rate of 50 satang (100 satang = 1 baht) per egg. The programme is planned to run until August.

The Commerce Ministry has pledged to speed up the export of about 200 million eggs by end August.

Hong Kong and Singapore are the top export markets for Thai eggs.