No one would help the government address any egg shortages if businesses are always accused of making a fortune when the nation is in trouble, egg importers said in a joint statement yesterday.
The statement, which was signed by Ultra Source Ltd and eight other egg importers, was issued after the Chinese National Party (KMT) and the Taiwan’s People Party (TPP) caucuses intensified accusations that egg importers were making a huge profit when the nation was experiencing an egg shortage.
“We want to ask the public to stop slandering us. We used our resources and connections to import eggs for the people of Taiwan when there was a global egg shortage,” they said. “Each of us wanted to do something for Taiwan, however the accusations are too harsh. We are concerned that nobody would come forward to help Taiwan in a difficult time after this.”
Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times
Both farm owners and lawmakers earlier this year asked the government to quickly import eggs from other countries after a domestic egg shortage, they said.
Egg importers were asked to achieve the impossible mission of importing eggs to Taiwan in one month, a task that would normally take three to five months, they said.
Officials from the Bureau of Foreign Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture told egg importers participating in information sessions on March 10 and March 14 that they must place orders before the end of March, they said.
“This meant we had to compete with other countries in placing orders for eggs, with costs being higher than usual,” they said. “We also managed to overcome many difficulties to find egg suppliers in other countries that meet the requirements regarding inspection and quarantine by the Ministry of Agriculture.”
The importers said that none of them have storage facilities and imported eggs were delivered directly to the storage facilities owned by the National Animal Industry Foundation to avoid risks of the eggs breaking and higher transportation costs.
“The government allowed eggs to be imported from other countries to address a domestic egg shortage, not to create a monopoly,” they said. “We are qualified to import eggs because we are able to place orders in one month.”
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