Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) yesterday apologized over controversies due to the government’s special egg import program, but added that the import policy was necessary to balance domestic market supplies and protect domestic egg producers’ benefits.
Chen was referring to the controversies surrounding the importation of 140 million eggs from March to July, which took place in response to an egg shortage in Taiwan, which the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) attributed to bird flu.
The program also came under criticism after incidents such as the mislabeling of imported eggs with wrong expiration dates or country of origin, and disposal of 54 million eggs after they expired in storage.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times 攝）
This was the first time the government has had to conduct emergency imports, and it was inevitable that the process would be flawed, Chen said in his report to the Legislative Yuan, which began its new legislative session yesterday.
Prior to Chen taking the podium, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers lodged a protest, demanding that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Vice President William Lai (賴清德) issue public apologies over the egg furor.
KMT caucus convener William Tseng (曾銘宗) said that the egg shortage started as a simple issue of lack of supply, but evolved into a food safety issue, with the government being unable to address alleged violations of the Government Procurement Act (政府採購法), allegations of favoring certain importers and the inability to accurately state the shelf life for the imported eggs.
The eggs that expired were a waste of state funds, and despite Chen’s apology, Tsai and Lai owe the public an apology, too, he said.
Tseng also called on the prosecutors’ office, government agencies and the National Audit Office to launch investigations into alleged financial and governance oversight failures.
KMT deputy secretary-general Hsieh Yi-fong (謝衣鳳) said that the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Animal Industry Foundation must investigate whether importers could have sneaked expired eggs onto shelves.
Chen Chien-jen said in the future the MOA would work closely with the Food and Drug Administration to keep track of the handling of imported eggs and make information about their processing and labeling public.
He also agreed with lawmakers that the Cabinet would consider no longer importing eggs from a country from which a shipment to Taiwan would take more than 20 days.
Nevertheless, when New Power Party Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) urged the premier to launch a Cabinet-led investigation to determine if there was any misconduct by the MOA, he declined to commit.
In response to Chiu, Acting Minister of Agriculture Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) confirmed that Chang Ching-wei (張經緯) would be stepping down as the director-general of the MOA’s Department of Animal Industry.
Chang will become the third official to resign over the issue, following the resignations of MOA minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) and Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢), president of the National Animal Industry Foundation, on Tuesday.
Chen Junne-jih said that eggs in storage would not be sold as-is and would be further processed to assuage consumer concerns.
Additional reporting by Wu Su-wei and CNA
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