Iran ships 100 tons of table eggs each day amid oversupply

Iran is exporting around 100 tons of table eggs amid an oversupply that has forced the government to ease restrictions on exports.

According to Press TV, head of Iran’s main poultry cooperative said on Monday that a government decision earlier last month to allow farmers ship their eggs to neighboring countries, especially to Iraq, helped ease an oversupply that had depressed the prices for nearly eight months.

Reza Torkashvand said Iran’s exports of table eggs since the start of the current Iranian calendar year in late March totaled 19,000 tons, saying daily exports had reached 100 tons per day in recent weeks.

Torkashvand said the boom in exports was helping farmers pay for the losses suffered since April when the government imposed a ban on exports and set a fixed price for domestic sale of table eggs.

He said rising exports would not affect the domestic supply, insisting that only 10 percent of the production, around 2,500 tons a day, was available for exports.

However, he said demand for Iranian egg was increasing in other countries and farmers were looking to resume exports to customers who used to import from Iran before the ban was imposed eight months ago.

The comments came as media reports on Monday suggested local egg prices had soared to over 250,000 rials for a pack of 30 large white eggs.

That comes as Torkashvand insisted that price should be 100,000 rials for each kilograms of table eggs, or 18,000-20,000 for a pack of 30.

Iran’s decision to lift the ban on exports of eggs comes as the country still maintain harsh tariff of 40 percent for exports of chicken.

ME