Eggs from abroad

The government, to stabilise the volatile egg market, first fixed the price of egg at Tk 12 apiece on September 14. The Directorate of National Consumers' Right Protection (DNCRP) and the administration were given the task of monitoring and enforcing the government order. But the market did not obey the government order. Egg continued to sell above the government-fixed price that ranged from Tk.13.50 to even Tk 15 per piece in some retail stores. So, making good on its promise that the ministry concerned would go for ordering import of egg if the retailers and wholesalers failed to go by the officially-dictated rate, it (the ministry) first, on September 17, gave four companies permission to import 40 million eggs (10 million eggs per company). Then again, on September 21, it allowed six companies to import 60 million more eggs.
But as those eggs have not reached the market thanks to bureaucratic delays in issuing the import permits to enable importers to open Letters of Credit (L/Cs), the egg traders did not have the motivation to reduce the price of their eggs. So, it continues to sell from Tk 1.50 to Tk 2 or more above the government-set price for each egg. And, in a bid to calm the egg market, the commerce ministry, for the third time on October 8, permitted five more companies to import 50 million eggs. That comes to 150 million eggs in the pipeline and they might enter the market in weeks. And the imported eggs will be sold at Tk.12 each as directed by the government. But considering the demand of eggs per day in the country, how big is the number of eggs to come from abroad? According to the commerce ministry, the country requires 40 million eggs a day. That means, the imported eggs can meet only 3.75 days' demand. One wonders how long the imported eggs would be able to keep the so-called syndicates manipulating the market for this essential item at bay!
It would be worthwhile to note here that the big poultry farms, who might be the perceived market manipulators, meet only 9 to 12 per cent of the country's daily demand for egg. That means about 90 per cent of the demand is met by the small farmers. The country produced 23.55 billion eggs in the fiscal year 2021-22.That was close to one billion more than the set target of 22.6 billion pieces. In that case, ideally, there should not be any supply crisis for eggs in the country. However, the poultry farmers, who are dead against egg import, have been complaining of a rise in the cost of egg production due to the price hike of some inputs including poultry feed. The government would do well to look into their complaints. And, as usual, the most affected by such rise in input costs are the small poultry farmers. Going by the Department of Livestock, many poultry farms have faced closure, mostly the small ones.
So, whether it is the syndicates or cost of inputs or financial constraints on the small farms causing the egg crisis, the matter should be looked into.
Import may be a short-term answer to the volatility of the egg market. But it is not only egg that is behaving in this way. Other essential items including onion and potato are also experiencing such price hike and the government did also fix their prices. But the traders are hardly adhering to the prices so fixed.
In fact, the entire essential commodities market is volatile. So, the government needs to seek a long-term, not a temporary approach to address the volatility of the essential commodities including the egg market.

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