In mid-November, the government announced a moratorium on the implementation of the project to import eggs for half a year. The imported egg controversy has finally come to a close . What kind of controversy has the imported eggs caused? Why did it become so notorious? Today, let us talk about the "Imported Egg Controversy"! Hiho~ Hello everyone, I am Zhiqi! Half a year ago, more than tens of millions of "imported eggs" were regarded as a life-saving straw to solve Taiwan's egg shortage. But half a year later, this batch of imported eggs has become a problem food that has made the public angry. Many people are afraid to buy it. Some people say that imported eggs are rotten eggs and bad guys, and that introducing them to Taiwan is harmful to the health of the Chinese people. The project to import eggs is also full of problems, not only collusion between government and business, but also a waste of people’s hard-earned money. But some people refute that imported eggs do not have so many problems at all. It was smeared by the opposition party and used as material to attack the ruling party. Many other doubts about imported eggs were also fabricated fake news . The two parties were quarreling. As more and more battlefields opened, things became more and more complicated. The more complicated it is, the more complicated it is that many people are confused . Today’s episode is a topic chosen by our members . We will review some of the bigger controversies over imported eggs. What is the controversy over Chaosi Company? Are there any food safety concerns about "Brazilian eggs"? Is it a waste of public money to import eggs ? But before we start today’s discussion, let’s go into some industrial and commercial service time! [Egg shortage crisis at the beginning of the year] Before we talk about the controversy over imported eggs , we need to look back at the "egg shortage" situation in Taiwan this spring. After the Lunar New Year, egg shortage problems were reported again in Taiwan. Industry estimates indicate that the amount of eggs that are lacking every day is More than a million pieces! The price of eggs has also been affected. The wholesale price has climbed from 52 yuan per catty at the beginning of the year to 55 yuan, a record high! Executive President Chen Jianren said that the egg shortage problem will reoccur mainly because of "bird flu", "climate change" and "sudden temperature drop" , which have caused the supply of eggs to fail to keep up with everyone's demand. Some experts also pointed out other factors such as the Russia-Ukraine war. As a result, rising raw materials and feed prices have increased egg farmers' production costs. They are unwilling to increase production capacity, and some people are rushing to buy and hoard eggs during the Spring Festival holiday. This has caused Taiwan to once again fall into an egg shortage situation after 2022. To make up for the domestic egg supply gap , in March, the government opened a "project to import eggs" hoping to solve the urgent need! [Imported egg boarding rescue] Starting in March, the Ministry of Agriculture adopted the "limited time and limited area" principle to open a project to import eggs from 12 countries within a certain period. The government and private parties cooperated, and traders went abroad to find "egg sources" after importing eggs to Taiwan. These eggs are first stored in the warehouse of the "Central Livestock Association" and then sold to downstream channels at Taiwan's origin price . The price difference, tariffs, and management and marketing expenses will be absorbed by the government through this "buy high, sell low" "The Ministry of Agriculture hopes to stabilize domestic egg prices so that everyone can buy affordable eggs. Since its implementation six months ago, Taiwan has imported a total of 145.31 million eggs from 7 countries. The government also stated that because of the imported eggs, the price of eggs has increased. It also calmed down , but I didn't expect that the controversy over imported eggs that started at the end of August would explode into a series of political and food safety turmoils! Because there are many aspects of disputes , we will generally introduce several major disputes in "chronological order" . The first one is the issue of "profit manufacturers"! [Controversy 1: Is the government profiting from manufacturers? 】 At the end of August, when the online media "Min Bao" checked the information of the Ministry of Agriculture, it was found that a trader "Chaosi" responsible for the imported eggs was a bit strange. "Min Bao" found that Chaosi Company was only established in September last year. The capital is only 500,000 yuan and it is suspected to be a "one-person company" . The company's address was checked from the company registration information. There is no logistics warehouse in a private house in Okayama. It is questioned that Chaosi's background is not simple . After the report came out, someone discovered that As of July, "Chaosi" has imported a total of 88.14 million eggs from Brazil, accounting for about 60% of all imports! To import such a large amount of eggs , including tariffs, egg purchase costs, etc., it would cost hundreds of millions of yuan. How did a small company with a capital of only 500,000 do it? All kinds of doubts have led many people to suspect that the government is trying to profit Chaosi and let Chaosi "make a fortune" by importing eggs! In the face of the controversy, the Ministry of Agriculture urgently explained that there were four main conditions when soliciting trade agents , and Chaosi met all of them. For example, Chaosi had experience in importing eggs from Japan in November last year and provided them in this project. The CIF price quotation is also reasonable , and there is a way to complete the first order before the end of March. In addition, when Chaosi helps Taiwan find egg sources, it also has business representatives to go to Mexico and Malaysia to find eggs. It is definitely not a so-called "one-person company." Chaosi also jumps They came out to complain and said that although their capital is small , they have the ability to mobilize funds. In this project, they have advanced more than 100 million yuan! They also followed the government's contract and did not make huge profits. Other suspicions of collusion between government and businessmen were severely denied. Chaosi emphasized that in order to alleviate the domestic egg shortage, they tried their best to search for egg sources. Unexpectedly, they found the largest number of egg sources , but they became the target of public criticism and were criticized by the outside world . The misunderstanding really made them sad. However, after the Ministry of Agriculture and Chaosi issued a statement, some people still questioned that the price of Brazilian eggs imported by Chaosi was too high, making unreasonable profits, etc. However, the controversy over imported eggs gradually moved to The "Food Safety Crisis" also caused the discussion of Chaosi to drop. The controversy in this area has come to an end for the time being [Controversy 2: Are imported eggs expired? 】 The second controversy is the "quality issue" of imported eggs. The Facebook fan "Lin bay Haoyou" posted in early September that the last batch of Brazilian eggs was packed and exported from Brazil on May 30. However, some people found that Brazilian eggs sold in stores have a manufacturing date of September 5th and a shelf life of October 5th. In other words, eggs imported from the end of May to the beginning of October will have a shelf life of more than "4 months" Lin Bay is good at oil, so I question it. This is very unreasonable. Even though Brazilian eggs say that they can be stored for 110 days if kept refrigerated, Taiwan does not maintain refrigeration, causing imported eggs to become "bad, rotten eggs." As soon as the post came out, there were many Netizens echoed the sentiment that the imported eggs they bought recently were indeed of poor quality. Related news also started to spread . Many people were even more puzzled when they saw the news. Generally, eggs in Taiwan can be kept for one month, while Brazilian eggs can be kept for four months. It’s really Is it okay? Seeing that things are getting worse, the Ministry of Agriculture once again came out to put out the fire. The Ministry of Agriculture stated that imported eggs are "long-term transportation." Before exporting , "edible wax" or a layer of film will be sprayed on the surface of the eggs to protect the eggshells and maintain quality . There is indeed a way to preserve imported eggs for several months if handled properly. However , after inspection by the Ministry of Agriculture, it was confirmed that the expiration dates of the last batch of Brazilian eggs imported under the project are September 24, September 25 and September 27 respectively . It said that those Brazilian eggs whose expiration date was marked as early October were indeed wrongly marked , and after the incident, the industry also completely removed the imported eggs with wrong markings from the shelves . The Ministry of Agriculture emphasized that Although some Brazilian eggs are labeled incorrectly , all Brazilian eggs are within the expiration date when sold. They hope that the public can rest assured that they will check other channel guidance companies to correctly label the expiration date. However, many people are still very uneasy and believe that the "cold chain" of imported eggs There are still many problems! [Controversy 3: Is the cold chain of imported eggs broken? 】 Some experts have questioned that the condition for Brazilian eggs to be stored for four months is that they must be "refrigerated below 5°C throughout the entire process." This requirement is met during the export, shipping, and warehousing processes, but it is in the hands of Taiwanese egg merchants and operators. Afterwards , the cold chain is "broken." For example, after Taiwanese egg dealers receive Brazilian eggs from the livestock association, they usually wash and select them again before packaging them into the channel. However, the water temperature used in the washing process is usually It is above 30 degrees and does not meet the requirements of Brazilian eggs below 5°C. Also, Taiwan does not have the concept of "low-temperature egg transportation". During the process of transporting eggs to the store, many operators' transport trucks lack refrigeration equipment . Needless to say, many of the egg sections in the store are filled with imported eggs that are "sold at room temperature." The outside world is worried about how much the quality is affected. Some people speculate that if the quality of imported eggs is poor, it may not be the fault of the imported eggs themselves but Taiwan's cold ones. The chain is not complete enough. Faced with the question of "broken chain", Executive Yuan President Chen Jianren said that the government did not plan well enough for cold chain regulations. The Ministry of Agriculture also promised that in the future, if there is another shortage of eggs, it will import original boxed eggs from abroad and transport them directly to the channel. There will not be an additional washing and selection process in the sales process . In addition, the cold chain transportation system will be strengthened as soon as possible for both domestic and imported eggs. However, we have not yet seen a relatively complete picture of how and how much this part will be improved. Information [Controversy 4: Is the flow of imported eggs unknown? 】 After the food safety controversy over imported eggs, everyone is anxious to know where the more than 100 million imported eggs have gone? Has it been eaten by everyone? Many local governments also clamored that the central government should provide information on imported eggs as soon as possible. In mid-September, the Ministry of Agriculture announced the flow of imported eggs . The first is to enter the washing field and then sent to supermarkets. The second is to be sent to processing plants for processing . The third is that the food or ingredients made into hard-boiled eggs, marinated eggs, liquid eggs, etc. are put into inventory and can be dispatched at any time when needed. The fourth is that they are expired and destroyed . Are the imported eggs well preserved after entering the downstream manufacturers ? It is not clear whether this is clearly marked . In order to find out where the imported eggs ultimately flow, the health bureaus of each county and city, as well as the Ministry of Agriculture, conducted inspections to confirm the inventory status of the operators . As a result, the Taoyuan City Health Bureau found that "Zhongyi Agricultural Products Company" Imported eggs are sold to breakfast shops, grocery stores, and street vendors in the form of "bulk basket eggs" without indicating that the place of origin is not Taiwan, allowing imported eggs to flow into the market. Many people believe that this means that the government cannot fully control the flow of imported eggs , and there are many fish that slip through the net. It also poses a threat to the food safety of the people . In this wave of operations to investigate the direction of the flow, the labeling issue of "liquid eggs" has become another controversial battlefield [Controversy 5: Is the place of origin unclear? 】 "Liquid egg" refers to the "liquid egg white, egg yolk liquid or whole egg liquid" separated after removing the egg shell . Because it is very convenient to cook and store, it is often used by the group catering industry or bakery industry such as nutritious lunches . In mid-month, the Taoyuan Health Bureau discovered that an egg factory used imported eggs from Brazil, Turkey, and Thailand as raw materials in the production of liquid eggs. However, the origin of the liquid eggs was labeled "Taiwan." The Health Bureau believed that the label was untrue and violated the regulations . According to the provisions of the Food Safety Law , a few days later, the health bureaus of New Taipei City and Taichung City also discovered similar situations. According to government data, there were about 60 million imported eggs introduced in this project, with about 40% imported eggs. They are all used to make liquid eggs. Everyone is worried. Does this mean that many imported eggs are distributed on the market disguised as domestic liquid eggs ? In order to reduce everyone's doubts, some counties and cities , including Taichung, Shuangbei, and Keelung, have also decided to ban nutritious lunch group meal operators from continuing to use liquid eggs . Although some operators with wrong labels may really be "washing the place of production" and deliberately importing The eggs were disguised as domestically produced eggs, but some operators complained. The reason why they labeled the production location of liquid eggs as Taiwan was "required by the Ministry of Agriculture" and now they are facing punishment . They feel unwilling and unwilling . The Ministry of Agriculture later investigated and found that it was indeed a government unit that "made a mistake" by the Animal Industry Association. I originally thought that the process of processing imported eggs into liquid eggs was a "substantial transformation", that is, a "change in the type of raw materials," so the place of production was required to be marked as Taiwan. But later I discovered that liquid eggs are not a substantial transformation and the source of the eggs must be marked. The Ministry of Agriculture of the People's Republic of China can say that their supervision was not thorough enough and apologize to the public for such negligence. It will also urge the Animal Industry Association to continue to strengthen guidance for industry operators to label correctly [Controversy 6: Too many scraps? 】 In mid-September, the Ministry of Agriculture announced that more than 50 million of the 150 million eggs imported for this project needed to be destroyed due to expiration or wear and tear . As soon as the news of composting came out, the Internet immediately rioted! Many people find it difficult to accept that up to 40% of imported eggs are expired and taxpayers' money is wasted! Calculated based on the cost of an egg of 5 yuan, the value of these destroyed eggs is more than 200 million yuan. Moreover, this does not include the cost of destruction. According to the government's public bidding information, it will cost more than 40 million yuan to destroy these eggs. These are all It’s a cost that everyone pays for! The Ministry of Agriculture explained that because Taiwan’s eggs are easily affected by climate or bird flu, production fluctuates greatly, so it is necessary to establish a “safety stock” to prepare for emergencies . If Taiwan’s egg shortage occurs again, the eggs in stock will be needed to make up for it. But if the domestic egg production is sufficient and these stocks will not be released , then the destruction of so many imported eggs this time is because Taiwan’s own egg production capacity has gradually recovered, coupled with the school summer vacation, reduced egg demand , and egg hoarders Starting to release eggs has greatly alleviated Taiwan's local egg shortage problem. In order not to affect egg prices, the Ministry of Agriculture decided not to release imported eggs to protect Taiwan's egg farmers. These imported eggs that have not been released will indeed face expiration. If there is enough time, eggs that are about to expire will be processed into liquid eggs, hard-boiled eggs, etc. to extend the service life. However, domestic processing capacity is limited , and there will still be a situation where the eggs are not processed in time until they expire, so they can only be destroyed and processed. The expenditures are all "necessary costs" for safety stocks. The Ministry of Agriculture said that although the money for destruction seems to be a lot, they estimate that after the introduction of imported eggs, the retail price of each egg in Taiwan will be reduced by at least "2.2 yuan." If consumers use it within three to Calculate the 3 billion eggs needed in July Imported eggs have helped people reduce their expenditure by more than 6 billion yuan! In comparison, the cost of destroying expired eggs is not much . However, many people still do not pay for the Ministry of Agriculture's explanation. Some people criticize, such as "school is on summer vacation and processing capacity is limited." These factors are all factors before the Ministry of Agriculture imports eggs. It can be grasped. The reason why the eggs are not expired is obviously due to a miscalculation, but it is said to be a safety stock. Some scholars also suggest that domestic egg inventories can be compared to the practices of natural gas companies and stipulate that egg dealers must have "self-prepared stocks". "Inventory" will not be like this time where the government takes care of all the inventory and then cannot sell it , causing a large number of eggs to expire and be scrapped! [Controversy 7: Is the imported egg controversy a political maneuver? 】 The last controversy has a different perspective. Some people believe that criticism of imported eggs is slander and political manipulation , especially after the "Linbay Good Oil Threat Case". This part of the controversy has also become the focus of the Facebook fan club Linbay Good Oil Here During the controversy over imported eggs in Poland, he continued to criticize the imported egg policy and repeatedly brought up the Ministry of Agriculture, which attracted great attention. On September 22, Linbay Haoyou moderator Lin Yuxi cried on a live broadcast and complained that he was intimidated by an unknown man because of criticizing the policy. The other party even knew that he was In order to protect his family 's home address , Lin Yuhong decided to stop updating his fan page and no longer make public appearances at the Taoyuan Procuratorate. Shortly after hearing the news, he immediately took action. Xu Zhebin, a party worker of the Kuomintang, was caught . Unexpectedly, Xu Zhebin broke the news that he was the victim of the crime. Only under Lin Yuhong's instruction would he send threatening messages! The whole intimidation case turned out to be a self-directed and self-acted farce! Afterwards, Lin Yuhong confessed to the crime in the fan blog , but he also said that he chose this wrong way of exiting because he was under too much pressure and wanted to withdraw from the storm. After Linbay's overturn , the direction of public opinion began to change significantly. Some people suspect that Linbay Haoyou's previous revelations were all exaggerated content , making the matter more serious than it actually is. He has been smearing imported eggs and feels that his motives are not pure. Some even suspect that there are political forces behind Linbay Haoyou and cooperate with the cyber army. Attacking the ruling party , but some people refute that even though Linbay's self-directed and self-acting approach is wrong , his previous posts criticizing imported eggs are actually well-founded and can stand verification and cannot be dismissed just because of a fake intimidation case . Denying his efforts to defend food safety, two things need to be looked at separately! The voices on both sides became more and more noisy and eventually turned into an inconclusive scolding battle [Will it change from a lack of eggs to a leftover egg? 】 The above is a summary of the main controversies over imported eggs. Affected by the controversy over imported eggs, many people have lost confidence in eggs and have reduced the frequency of buying eggs . As of mid-November, nutritious lunches are still prohibited in some counties and cities. Using liquid eggs, the overall egg market sales are not as expected , causing egg merchants everywhere to have more and more inventories. Taiwan has turned from an egg shortage crisis at the beginning of the year to a situation of "leftover eggs". The eggs cannot be sold out and the purchase price of eggs is not good. The wholesale price also fell for three consecutive weeks for the first time, from 55 yuan per catty to 48 yuan, setting a record . The new Minister of Agriculture Chen Junji said that if egg prices continue to fall, it may affect the livelihood of egg farmers and may lead to egg farmers abandoning their eggs, laying the foundation for future shortages. He also expressed concerns about eggs to some counties and cities, hoping that nutritious lunches would soon resume the use of liquid eggs. He also emphasized that currently there are only domestically produced eggs on the market and there are no concerns about eating them. In terms of imported eggs, hoping to stimulate people's motivation to buy them , the Ministry of Agriculture said that the current domestic eggs The production capacity has been able to meet the needs of the Chinese people , so the import of eggs will be suspended from November 14th ! In the future, we will only continue to order if necessary [Differences in Public Opinion] Then we have observed that although the discussion of imported eggs has gradually decreased , everyone's perception of this issue is still in a very divided state, roughly divided into "questioning agriculture" People in the Ministry of Agriculture's camp and those who support the Ministry of Agriculture question the Ministry of Agriculture and believe that the whole imported egg project is in a mess. The Ministry of Agriculture not only seeks to profit manufacturers, but also keeps lying. Experts say that imported eggs have food safety concerns , but the Ministry of Agriculture deceives everyone that they don't have to worry about eggs . The industry erroneously declares the expiry date, but the Ministry of Agriculture is passing the ball to other units, shirking responsibility , and clearly buying too many imported eggs, resulting in serious waste. The Ministry of Agriculture insists that it is a safety stock. No matter how the outside world criticizes the Ministry of Agriculture, there are always thousands of reasons why it refuses to admit it . The policy is wrong. Those who support the Ministry of Agriculture believe that imported eggs have been "seriously discredited." The food safety problem is not that serious, but some people deliberately made the matter bigger and caused unnecessary panic among people. This has caused more problems, such as the impact of people being afraid to buy eggs. Egg traders or imported eggs cannot be sold and must be scrapped, etc. Moreover, the Ministry of Agriculture is trying to solve the egg problem but is being slandered like this, which is very unfair! Many people will also use the "Multiverse of Eggs" to emphasize that no matter what the government does, it will be attacked and the Ministry of Agriculture feels very pitiful . Later, there has been a huge gap in understanding between the two sides , and there is almost no room for discussion. If someone If someone says that imported eggs are "no problem," they will immediately be scolded, "The government's cyber army is out to clean up the ground." They are deceiving the people again and protecting problematic policies. If someone says that imported eggs are "problematic," they will also be scolded by the other side. The cyber armies of the opposition parties came out to spread rumors and wanted to use imported eggs to attack the ruling party and seek their own political interests. The tit-for-tat confrontation between the two camps has become more and more intense on the Internet , making imported eggs an issue that is difficult to discuss calmly . , instead of caring about imported eggs , some people have called for attention. At this stage, we should pay more attention to the real reasons for Taiwan’s continuous shortage of eggs [Why is there always a shortage of eggs? 】 Many investigative reports believe that Taiwan may once again face an egg shortage crisis in the next few years ! Mainly because in the past few years, Taiwanese people have become more and more fond of eggs. The daily demand for eggs has increased from 100,000 boxes per day in 2018 to about 120,000 boxes per day in 2023. However, with At the same time, Taiwan's egg production capacity is not increasing so fast and is easily affected by avian influenza and climate, which makes the production unstable and leads to egg shortage problems. Behind this problem is the long-term dilemma of the egg industry , such as egg The long-term freeze in prices has led to the lack of incentives for egg farmers to update equipment. Old chicken houses, traditional breeding methods have caused heavy losses to laying hens when faced with bird flu and climate problems , and the criticized "underwriting system", etc., all require a comprehensive review of this part of the past. The reform requires considerable investment and communication costs. The government lacks the motivation to carry out major reforms . Now, it is only because of several consecutive waves of egg shortage controversies that everyone realizes the seriousness of the problem . Although the Ministry of Agriculture said it is actively coaching egg farmers to transform. But it is still unknown how fast the reform will be and how much it can change. [Our point of view] Before entering the point of view, I would like to express my special thanks to the members of Zhiqi Qiqi. Only with your support can we continue to operate this channel , and today’s theme is members. Voted! So, if you are willing to support us to go further or have special topics you want to discuss, you are welcome to become a member and vote for topics of interest every month! Back to the topic, the controversy related to imported eggs this time is really one of the more complicated episodes in the film we have dealt with. Because of the limited space and the fact that the incident happened for a while, we can only select the louder controversies to talk about . It has to be a little simpler and may have left out a lot of information. If there are any shortcomings, please feel free to help us add and explain in the message area! Well, although many people may feel that the imported egg controversy that has been in the news for the past few months seems to have become a subject full of "political spit". We feel that this is the first time that the government has introduced eggs on a large scale. There are indeed major deficiencies in many links, such as "inconsistent understanding of validity period and origin labeling", "lack of cold chain for fresh eggs", "relevant regulations have not kept up", etc. But in fact, these problems have always been there in the past. For example, there is the cold chain part. In the past, Taiwan's domestic eggs may only take a few days from production to sale. The cold chain is not used much. This is why many Taiwanese businesses do not have appropriate cold chain equipment . After the egg shortage crisis last year, agriculture The ministry has launched a plan to subsidize industries to strengthen the cold chain to prevent the next wave of egg shortages , but the plan did not go smoothly . After the controversy over imported eggs broke out this year, the cold chain problem came to the surface again , forcing the government and industry to face it together. Take more active measures to speed up the construction of the cold chain system. After reading the controversy over imported eggs and its subsequent impact , we actually have a lot of feelings about the issue of imported eggs. The issue of imported eggs has been quarreling for several months , maybe because it is close to the election. More political variables have been added. The whole process is very messy and makes many people unhappy. As you can see, it seems that only quarrels and confrontations are left on the stage. But this process, when we look back, is also part of "democratic politics". This reflects finding problems through mutual correction and supervision , and proposing improvements. In other words, although this dispute is very confusing , we can still find some of the discussions and handling during this chaotic process that really caused some problems. Adjustments allow society to move in a better direction, such as the discussion of cold chain-related regulations mentioned earlier, which help make the system and industry more sound. Perhaps, after this period of turmoil, no matter what the political and election results are, we can all look forward to the next time When the government needs to import eggs again, it will do it more properly than this time and avoid doubts. We also hope that Taiwan’s egg industry can slowly solve the problem so that everyone can eat nutritious and safe eggs! Okay, today I want to ask you what do you think of the imported egg controversy in the past few months? Finally, if you like today’s video, please share it so that more people can discuss the controversy over imported eggs! In addition, you can also click here to read the discussions on "Taipower's Big Loss" and "Taiwan's Egg Shortage Problem in 2022" . So, today's Zhiqi Qiqi comes to an end here. See you tomorrow night!
