BANGKOK, 12 March 2013 The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives has reportedly proposed to the Cabinet a measure to solve an oversupply of chicken eggs as fewer eggs are being consumed than they are produced each day.
The measure, which has been proposed for Cabinet’s consideration, is to lower the age of hens to be culled. Layer chickens will be retired sooner at the age of no more than 65 weeks old, putting around 2.5 million more hens on retirement, if the cabinet approves.
The Ministry has proposed a financial compensation of 10 baht for a retired hen to raisers. Given the rough count of hens, a total amount of 25.8 million baht will have to be spent on those chickens.
According to the Ministry, there is an oversupply of 4-5 million eggs per day. While Thais consume 32 million eggs daily, 36.5 million eggs are produced each day. Other measures will include removing 195 million eggs out of the market within 6 months with a 50 satang compensation for an egg paid to producers.
The measure would cost another 98 million baht in addition to the sum of 25.8 million baht for the hens. Another solution is to launch a public relations campaign to encourage Thais to eat more eggs particularly in the provinces where eggs are produced. The campaign is expected to require a budget of 8 million baht.
However, Finance Minister Kittiratt Na Ranong said after reviewing the proposal that the Committee on Layer Hens and Egg Products Development Policy has already been in charge of egg management as a whole. So the measures developed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives were presented to the Cabinet for acknowledgement only.
