The government recently decided to import 30 million eggs to increase supply and meet demand, according to Tarek Soleiman, head of the livestock and poultry development sector at the Ministry of Agriculture.

Although Egypt has been self-sufficient in egg production for years, the decision to import was taken as an attempt to control prices. Soleiman said imports had started for chicks at least a day old for producing table eggs. table eggs are eggs in the form most familiar to consumers – fresh and in-the-shell). “The moment stability in prices returns to the market, the import of eggs will stop immediately,” he told Al-Ahram Weekly.

The Supply Ministry announced in a statement that the first of these contracted imported quantities arrived on 20 October and that the remaining quantities will be shipped later in October and November. A carton of 30 eggs will cost LE150 in the ministry’s consumer outlets. The same carton is sold for LE200 in other supermarkets.

Fourteen billion eggs were produced locally in 2022 but production has currently fallen to 8.5 billion eggs, according to Abdel-Aziz Al-Sayed, head of the Poultry Division at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce and a member of the food commodities follow-up committee in the cabinet. The difference represents a large gap which led to a three-fold increase in the price of table eggs from two years ago.

Maher Nessim, a member of the Poultry Producers Union, said he believed the government was not to blame for the decision to import, explaining that exaggerated price increases were the main reason but stressed that the state should support producers.

Nessim recounted that the problem began 18 months ago as feed trade monopolists began hiking the price of their products, causing the closure of 40 to 50 per cent of poultry farms. “Soybeans were sold to poultry farms for LE42,000 while their cost was LE15,000. At that time, we contacted the ministry to warn of price increases — which is what happened. The monopolists destroyed the poultry economy,” Nessim told the Weekly.

Hamada Ibrahim, the owner of a company working in the field since 2006, said the cost of producing table eggs has increased significantly due to the increase in the dollar exchange rate from LE18 to LE48. A ton of yellow corn, used as feed for poultry, now costs up to LE20,000 after it was LE4,000, and the price of a chick has increased tenfold to LE90. “The increase in the price of chicks, the exchange rate, and the lack of feed during the past two years led to the exit of many producers in the poultry market,” Ibrahim said, calling on officials to cancel grain brokers, provide financing and support for local producers, support research to promote local eggs and improve the local chick breed which, he added, will reduce imports. He stressed the necessity of horizontal expansion in the cultivation of yellow corn and soybeans with high-yield seeds that reach six tons an acre instead of the current three tons.

On a similar note, Al-Sayed called upon the government to support the poultry industry by ensuring the availability of production inputs. That, Al-Sayed told the Weekly, would ensure fair prices for consumers.

Soleiman stressed that the ministry’s main goal is always to preserve the local product, saying the poultry industry in Egypt witnessed “remarkable development” as in 2017 animal wealth and poultry licenses did not exceed 1,500 but in 2024 reached 125,000 licenses.

He added that the state’s support for poultry farms includes the necessity of having a veterinarian in contact with the ministry, in addition to not subjecting farms to real estate tax, exempting poultry producers from value-added tax, exempting feed additives from value-added tax, opening financing and loans from banks, exempting small breeders from the legal requirement for financing and lending, and facilitating obtaining operating licenses.

“We are now monitoring the highest occupancy and settlement rates for broiler and laying hens, and what matters to us is the fair price of the egg, not the cheap price,” Soleimansaid, adding that opening up egg imports has already caused a downward trend in prices.

Breed broiler is any chicken that is bred specifically for meat production.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 31 October, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly