PETALING JAYA: Since imported eggs are more expensive than local ones, poultry farmers and merchants are urging the government to remove the ceiling price set for eggs and let the price be determined by market forces or increase the ceiling price by 10 sen.

Hoh Peng Keong, deputy secretary of Selangor Livestock Farmers’ Association, told Sin Chew Daily the farmers did not object to importing chicken eggs to resolve the shortage problem.

If the government allows imported eggs similar to type D local eggs to be sold at 50 sen each, imported eggs are more expensive than local ones.

Hoh said the government had capped the retail prices of chicken eggs at 45 sen for type A, 43 sen for type B and 41 sen for type C.

The retail prices of local eggs are still lower than the imported ones.

Hoh, who is also a poultry farmer himself, said although the government increased the subsidy for farmers from 3 sen to 10 sen per egg, farmers had yet to receive the subsidy since it was increased to 8 sen per egg.

The ex-farm price for type A chicken eggs has been set at 39 sen, type B at 37 sen and type C at 35 sen, he said, adding that with the 10 sen of subsidy provided by the government, farmers received an average of 40 sen per egg.

However, no subsidy has been provided to egg merchants.

The government also fixed that egg merchants could only make 3 sen per egg in profit.

Why did the government allow the price of imported eggs similar to type D local eggs to be higher than the local eggs? Hoh asked.

Many egg merchants were reluctant to sell eggs due to the low profit margin, he said.

“For a tray of 30 eggs, one can only make 90 sen of profit but you will lose if an egg is broken,” he said.

“We do not object to the government’s move of setting ceiling prices during the festive season, but we hope the government will not list eggs as a controlled item.

“If prices are not determined by market forces, cash flow will be affected. Poultry farmers are not going to rear more chicks to boost egg production,” he explained.

Poultry farmers find it hard to accept the ceiling price set by the government which is lower than the production cost, said Hoh.

“Now that the production cost is 50 sen per egg while the ceiling price has been fixed at 40 sen, poultry farmers will have no way to produce more eggs,” he said.