Where have all the eggs gone?

Supermarket chains have been busy since the beginning of the year trying to find out where all the eggs have disappeared to.

The two largest chains, Super-Sol and Blue Square have been reporting shortages and irregular deliveries of eggs under supervision of the Agriculture Ministry - Number 1 and 2 eggs - and the large wholesalers agree that there is a problem.
 
However, the marketing board responsible for planning and supervising egg production says there is no real shortage.

Uri Pelah, a vice president of Blue Square says that for three or four months there has been an egg shortage: "The egg suppliers and producers claim that they are not allowed to import [eggs], there is a big shortage and customers are upset."

The situation at Super-Sol is similar, and they say that the situation has only gotten worse since the recent holidays - and no one is taking responsibility.

Tnuva, one of the three largest egg suppliers, agreed that there is a shortage in general and that it is continuing to import eggs. The Egg Producers Board approved imports of 8 million eggs for consumers and 5 million for industry last week, but it will take time until these arrive.

The Agriculture Ministry said that it has not received any complaints from consumers, despite claims by the supermarket chains that they are inundated with such calls.

However, open air markets tell a different story. There, there is no shortage of eggs at all.

Why? Because there's a black market in eggs, says one industry source.

"When a shortage arises, producers prefer to sell first to intermediaries who come to pick up the eggs and deliver them to open markets. The result is that producers cannot meet their quotas, though they make them up in later months. For these intermediaries there is no supervised price."

To grasp just how serious the problem is, you need to know something about the egg sector. Number 1 and 2 eggs are under state supervision, while the prices of the rest of the eggs: organic, free-range and super fresh, are not regulated. They are much more expensive.

There are three large wholesalers who collect the eggs from the farmers, mostly in the North. The three are Tnuva, Glicksman and Lesser.

 However, Lesser and Glicksman also raise egg-laying chickens themselves, including those not under state supervision. The producers receive a state subsidy and the Egg Producers Board sets quotas in relation to demand, in order to prevent over-supply since eggs have a particularly short shelf-life of 16 days maximum.

The main problem is that producers have little interest in becoming more efficient, since they will receive the same amount of money for their eggs regardless of their quality, and even if they do not meet their quotas on time and only sell the eggs at a later date.

The Second Lebanon War, diseases and increased demand around the holidays only made the situation worse. The winter is also usually a problematic period.

In addition, the body that approves imports, the Egg Production Board, is made up mostly of producers and marketers, who have little interest in lowering prices or competition.

Amiram Cohen adds:

The price index for fresh agricultural produce rose in the last 16 months, from December 2005 to March 2007, by 8.6 percent.

This compares to a 0.3 percent drop in the consumer price index over the same period, according to figures published by the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Agriculture Ministry.

Excluding fruits and vegetables, food prices still rose 5.1 percent - an average increase of NIS 150 a month per household.

The increase in March 2007 was 0.2 percent, mostly due to increases in meat and poultry prices of 3.8 percent.