Kaohsiung breakfast operators protested against the price gouging of eggs, threatening to link up with their counterparts in Taiwan to "reject" eggs.

(Photo by reporter Wang Rongxiang)

[Reporters Wang Rongxiang, Ge Youhao, Yang Yuanting/Comprehensive Report] Protesting against egg farmers and egg merchants to drive up egg prices, more than 30 traditional breakfast businesses in Kaohsiung announced yesterday that they will join forces with their counterparts in Taiwan to refuse to buy eggs for ten days, reduce egg products, and appeal to young and middle-aged people During this period of time, eat less eggs and save eggs for the elderly and children. Through boycotts, the outrageous egg prices will be stabilized.

The business owner surnamed Cai pointed out that for businesses with a large demand for eggs such as catering, there is a certain mechanism in the market. If there is a price increase, the notification will be made on Monday, and the price reduction will be notified on Wednesday. Unexpectedly, the egg business did not notify yesterday last Friday without warning. To raise the price, four yuan per catty and eighty yuan per box will destroy the original mechanism.

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It is questioned that the increase rate of each egg merchant is the same, and it is obviously jointly driven up

The trader laments that the price of eggs has been out of control for a while now, rising from 900 yuan to 1,200 yuan per box. In the past, the Egg Merchants Association used to provide egg price references based on egg farmers, and then notified the trader after a meeting to decide the price increase. Egg merchants decide on their own, and each company has the same price increase, which is obviously jointly driven up; the shortage of eggs in Taiwan is not large, and it is judged that egg merchants and egg farmers have released news of egg shortages in series, causing people to rush to buy and stock up, and then seek benefits from it.

Kaohsiung City Councilor Zheng Guangfeng criticized that the gouging of egg prices has reached the point of lawlessness. The government should require egg farmers and egg merchants to establish a transparent contract mechanism and strictly investigate the joint gouging behavior of egg merchants.

The Gaoshi Egg Merchant Association is helpless: It is impossible to unilaterally drive up

The cadres (egg merchants) of the Gaoshi Egg Merchant Association said helplessly that the problem should lie at the source. Egg merchants cannot unilaterally drive up egg prices, and there is nothing they can do about it. Northern egg merchants said that a carton of eggs in the north has already been sold for 1,800 Yuan, "Wherever there is an egg now, go there to find it."

The egg merchant said that after the price increase of eggs, some small egg merchants switched to selling duck eggs and other poultry eggs, and some small egg merchants had to go out of business because they could not squeeze cash flow.

Yin Maoqian, the consumer protection officer of Gaoshi government, said that six large egg merchants in Kaohsiung were inspected four times this month, and no illegal hoarding was found.

The Animal Husbandry Department of the Council of Agriculture stated that eggs have been imported successively to meet domestic demand, leading to chaos in the egg market.