5 Million Australian Eggs Arrive in Taiwan 解決蛋荒 農委會將進口500萬顆澳洲雞蛋

The Council of Agriculture will import 5 million eggs from Australia to replace domestic eggs in the production of processed food to satisfy demand in Taiwan. The government will have to absorb the price difference.

360,000 eggs of the first batch of imported Australian eggs arrived in Taiwan on Feb. 25. After inspection and requisite quarantine clearance, they will be dispatched to manufacturers for use as early as March 3. However, an agricultural blogger analyzed that since the COA plans to import 5 million eggs, with each kilogram incurring losses of about NT$100 or more, it would be equivalent to the COA having to pay an additional NT$30 million.

Chen Chi-chung, Minister, Council of Agriculture: “Importing from Australia involves air freight and ocean shipping fees so each egg will naturally cost more than locally grown eggs. But the price discrepancy will be absorbed by the Council. But the most important thing is, farmers should rest assured that it won't affect the price of a place of manufacture.”

In order to solve the egg shortage problem domestically, apart from importing abroad, certain legislator urges the government to quickly rebuild old chicken coops to increase egg production capacity. However, this wave of egg shortage not only led to the public's inability to obtain eggs but people are also confronted with steep egg prices. The Institute of Industrial Economics for NCU publicized the February consumer index, which rose to 62.47 points, at a monthly increase of 2.74 points. Nevertheless, it dropped annually by 10.72 points. Of the 6 indexes, 5 appear rather pessimistic. In addition, the domestic CPI is at 27.15 points, up by 0.15 monthly yet dropped by 3.3 points annually. Thus the public is concerned whether this year the economic trend still remains pessimistic.

Wu Da-jen, Director, Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development, NCU: “We have over 96 percent of people who believe that the CPI will still go up in the next half year so the anxiety is quite deep.”

Scholars point out that people are still pessimistic about consumer prices in the next half year. When will high inflation slow down? It is probably not solvable simply by raising interest rates to suppress rising prices.

第一批進口的澳洲蛋，總計36萬顆25日抵台，等到完成檢驗和檢疫通關程序後，最快後天就能調度給加工業者使用。不過，有農業部落客分析，農委會預計要進口500萬顆蛋，每公斤至少虧100元以上，等於農委會要貼3000萬。

農委會主委陳吉仲表示：「澳洲進口的部分，那因為牽扯到是海運還是空運，所以每一顆的蛋當然進來之後，是比國內的貴，那這個價差呢，農委會這一邊會來吸收，但是最重要的是，它不會影響到產地的價格，請農民放心。」

為了解決國內蛋荒問題，除了從國外進口，也有立委呼籲，國內應該盡速改建老舊養雞禽舍，才能提升國內產蛋量。只是，這波缺蛋荒，不只民眾買不到蛋，飆漲蛋價更讓人吃不消。央大經研中心，公布2月消費者信心指數，雖然上升到62.47點，月升2.74點，不過卻年減10.72點，6項指標中有5項都偏悲觀。另外，在未來半年國內物價水準是27.15點，月升0.15點，年減3.3點，外界關注今年是否抱持悲觀趨勢？

中央大學台經中心執行長吳大任指出：「我們有96%以上的民眾，他們認為未來半年的物價還是會上漲，對未來物價上漲的憂慮還是蠻深的。」

學者指出，民眾對於未來半年物價，仍大多持悲觀態度，高通膨物價何時消退？恐怕不是光靠升息，就能壓抑節節高升的物價。