Egg suppliers have had it with the government suppressing egg prices and are threatening to stop supplying eggs altogether. Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung says farmers are bluffing.
All of these people dragged themselves out of bed this morning to go line up at the grocery store in the hopes of getting their hands on a few eggs. The grocery store starts selling eggs at 10 a.m.
Citizen: “Eggs are ridiculously expensive now. I've had luck in the past (getting eggs) if I lined up long enough, but I'm all out. I haven't had a single egg to eat in two weeks.”
Citizen: “I paid NT$75 per catty last time. I don't know how much they cost now, but I still have to try. My parents need to have an egg for breakfast every morning.”
Place of origin and wholesale egg prices currently stand at, respectively, NT$45.5 and NT$55 per catty. Wholesalers were reportedly prepared to raise prices this week, but were pressured into postponing a price hike by the government.
Chen Chi-chung, Agriculture Minister: “They keep claiming (we are suppressing prices). That does not help solve the problem. Egg wholesalers and groups can go discuss prices with the egg price mechanism committee if they want. We will respect their decision.”
During a promotional event for NT$60 lunch boxes, Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung claimed the Council of Agriculture has never intervened in egg prices. However, the egg supplier association says one more price freeze by the government and its members will stop selling eggs altogether. Chen says suppliers are bluffing.
Chen Chi-chung, Agriculture Minister: “Stopping sales is a fake issue because all egg exchanges -- every day, our egg farms produce eggs. And then, they are sold through various channels everywhere. It's not like our wholesale meat market. So, they have transactions every single day.”
Chen says over 7 million eggs will have been imported by the end of March and more are coming in April. He also said egg production is going up all the time and the council will work very hard to make egg sales return to normal.
雜貨店門口，上午9時許，就已經排了長長人龍，大家都在等待10點的雞蛋販售時間。
民眾說：「太貴了，排隊才買得到，我現在沒有蛋，我已經兩個禮拜沒來。」
也有民眾表示：「先前買過一斤75塊錢，那現在不知道多少，還是買，因為老人家一個早上都吃一顆蛋。」
雞蛋供需問題，持續引發各界討論，現在產地和批發蛋價，每台斤分別是45.5元及55元。先前傳出，雞蛋產銷業者打算再漲價格，但疑似因為官方壓力，最後決議這個星期蛋價暫時不漲，下星期再議。
農委會主委陳吉仲指出：「不斷在重演這樣的劇本（說施壓），無助於問題的解決，蛋商跟蛋農團體，他們透過蛋價的機制委員會，去討論的決定，我們都是完全尊重。」
農委會主委陳吉仲，出席國產食材60元餐盒的開賣活動，澄清農委會沒有介入蛋價。至於蛋商公會揚言，如果再凍漲，將無限期休市並且不再報價，陳吉仲認為，休市是假議題。
農委會主委陳吉仲強調：「休市是一個假議題，因為整個雞蛋的交易，每天的蛋雞場都會有雞蛋的生產，然後在各地都會經過各式各樣的通路在交易進行，它不像我們的肉品的批發市場，所以它每天都有在交易。」
陳吉仲也指出，專案進口的雞蛋，在3月底會超過700萬顆，4月還會更多，目前產蛋雞的量已經有所提升，行政院會定期召開跨部會議，農委會會努力讓雞蛋產銷回歸正常。