The Egg Price Committee of the Republic of China held a meeting yesterday to discuss whether to increase egg prices in response to costs, and finally decided not to adjust the egg prices this week. It was reported that the egg merchants were quite dissatisfied.

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[Reporter Chen Jiayi/Taipei Report] Domestic egg supply and demand are out of balance. Egg producers and marketers held a meeting last night. The original plan was to increase the price of eggs by another 2 to 3 yuan per catty. However, it is reported that the government has put pressure on industry representatives and asked to wait another week. Look, the final decision is not to raise the price for the time being.

Some egg merchants threatened that if the price rises again next week, the egg market will be closed indefinitely, and the egg merchants association refused to offer.

The Council of Agriculture responded by respecting the results of discussions between the production and marketing parties.

The domestic egg price was raised by 2 yuan and 3 yuan respectively on February 13 and March 5 this year, and was raised twice within a month. The current production site price has reached a record high of 45.5 yuan per catty and 55 yuan for the wholesale price. However, there is still a large shortage of eggs in the country, and it cannot be resolved in the short term. Egg merchants and egg farmers held a meeting last night to discuss and adjust egg prices again in response to market supply and demand.

However, it was reported that the government exerted pressure through industry representatives, and the Council of Agriculture also hoped to adjust the price according to the quantity of imported eggs for this week's project. In the end, the egg price remained unchanged for a week.

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Chen Jinding, executive director of the Egg Price Committee of the Republic of China, said frankly that the discussion process last night was "not very pleasant." Some industry representatives said that "the government hopes to wait until the next batch of imported eggs comes in before discussing whether to raise the price." Quite dissatisfied; some egg merchants even threatened that if the Council of Agriculture stopped the price increase again, it would not rule out closing the market indefinitely and no longer quoting, so that the price of eggs would return to free trading; "But if there is no market price reference, everything will return to the free market mechanism, eggs The price will be more chaotic, and it will not be good for consumers.” It may become a situation where egg farmers, egg merchants, and consumers all lose.

The official request is to freeze for one week first. Chen Jinding believes that even if the COA plans to import 5 million eggs next week, it will not be enough to meet the current gap, because the amount that egg merchants can get is too small. If it is really necessary to make up the gap, at least 5 million per day is enough.

Changjiang Wenquan, deputy director of the Animal Husbandry Department of the Council of Agriculture, responded that he respected the results of the discussions between the producers and sellers, and did not intervene in the agreement between the egg producers and sellers. As for the egg merchants association's plan to "close the market indefinitely", he explained that there is no unified wholesale market for eggs, so naturally there is no "closed market" "Mechanism; the Egg Price Committee decided not to set the price of origin and wholesale price, but to return to bargaining between buyers and sellers. If this happens, the conclusion of the meeting and the market mechanism will also be respected.

As for egg merchants who believe that importing eggs from abroad still cannot solve the problem of egg supply and demand, Jiang Wenquan emphasized that everything will be adjusted on a rolling basis depending on the supply and demand of eggs in the domestic market.

The Council of Agriculture has opened the project to import eggs from 8 countries, and next week at least 5 million eggs will arrive in Taiwan one after another by air and sea.