September 25, 2023

Taiwan's retail egg price rises as doubts over imported eggs' quality mount

Questions over the quality of imported eggs entering Taiwan have boosted the demand for domestically produced eggs in the country and caused an increase in the retail egg price, the Taipei Egg Retailers' Association said on September 24.

"People now have serious doubts over the quality of imported eggs due to food safety issues that arose recently," association chairman Lin Tien-lai said.

Controversy has surrounded a special egg import programme introduced by Taiwan's Ministry of Agriculture to address a nationwide egg shortage earlier this year. The furor included the discovery that eggs imported from Brazil had an incorrect expiration date, and egg shipments from Brazil were found to contain florfenicol and chloramphenicol residues.

"As many primary and secondary schools have stopped using liquid eggs in school lunches, the nation's demand for shell eggs has increased by about 400,000 per day," Lin said.

The retail egg price for consumers is expected to rise to NT$55 (US$1.71) per 600g from NT$53 (US$1.65), while the retail price at last production sites is scheduled to rise on September 28 to NT$45.5 (US$1.41) per 600g from NT$43.5 (US$1.35), the association said.

The egg shortage is likely to worsen and continue for the rest of the year due to a decreased consumption of imported eggs and inadequate domestic egg production, Lin said, adding that retail prices might increase further.

Separately, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it completed inspections at 59 liquid-egg processing factories launched last week. Two factories failed the inspection for environmental hygiene and two items were found with labeling errors.

The inspection was initiated as a handful of factories were reported last week to have mislabeled imported liquid egg products as "Made in Taiwan."

- Taipei Times