Price of poultry egg has fallen drastically over the last few months due to excess supply, but despite this the Ministry of Industry and Trade has gone ahead with granting a quota to import 40,000 dozen eggs.
According to Nguyen Thanh Son, deputy head of the Department of Livestock under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the price of poultry egg and meat, like pork and chicken, has dropped drastically since the beginning of the year, with egg prices plunging almost 47 percent.
About 4.1 billion eggs were produced in the first six months of the year, an increase of 4.7 percent over the same period last year.
Surplus supply has plunged the price of egg. In the northern region, the price of an industrial chicken egg has fallen from VND1,700-1,800 in January to VND900.
Duck egg price has dropped from VND2,400 to VND1,500 an egg and prices are even cheaper in the southern region.
During the last one month, egg price has increased slightly. Breeders and businesses are not yet happy and are anxious as the Ministry of Industry and Trade has granted quota to import 40,000 dozen eggs, from August until the end of 2012.
Phan Thi Dieu Ha, deputy head of the Export Import Department under the Department of Industry and Trade, said that Vietnam has pledged with the World Trade Organization to apply quota on four different commodities including poultry egg.
In 2007, Vietnam granted quota to import 30,000 dozen poultry eggs. This number will increase by five percent each consecutive year. However, no private business has registered to import poultry eggs so far.
Nguyen Thanh Bien, deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, said that in the process to placate WTO, Vietnam negotiated protecting of four agricultural commodities, and the tariff rate imposed on these commodities is very high.
To apply the high tariff rate, Vietnam must accept granting an import quota with low tariff rate on the above products every year.
Mr. Bien said that import of eggs is not timely because the domestic supply is abundant and farmers cannot sell their products. However, the ministry’s quota allocation will not affect domestic production and breeders.
