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Acute shortage of eggs in Abu Dhabi
ABU DHABI - The capital is facing an acute shortage of eggs and a steep increase in their prices following the ban on import of poultry products from Saudi Arabia since the outbreak of bird flu there.
- PUBLISHED: Wed 28 Nov 2007, 9:05 AM UPDATED: Sun 5 Apr 2015, 4:41 AM
- By:
- Anwar Ahmad (Our staff reporter)
Random visits to supermarkets and groceries in the local market by this reporter on Monday revealed that eggs are hardly available and those who have them are selling them at higher prices.
Local groceries are selling a tray of 30 eggs for Dh20, which is nearly Dh5 more than what they charged before the ban on egg imports from Saudi Arabia. In September, the price of one tray of 30 eggs was Dh14 to Dh14.50.
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In fact, the same was selling at Dh12.75 in May, which means that in a span of seven months, the increase had been around Dh7-7.50.
“Now, we are getting a carton of 12 trays, consisting of 360 eggs, at Dh200. Six months ago, it was available at Dh120. There has been a shortage of eggs in the market after the ban,” said a cafeteria owner in the capital, Haider Ali.
“Consequently, we have increased the price of a boiled egg by 25 fils to 75 fils to cover the cost,” another cafeteria owner said.
When contacted, Bejoy Pulicken, advertising and marketing manager at Abu Dhabi Cooperative Society, a big chain of supermarkets in the capital, said, “There is a shortage of eggs after the ban on Saudi Arabian imports. We are trying to import eggs from neighbouring countries like Oman as the local poultry farms have failed to meet the demand.”
However, he insisted that the chain had not increased the prices of eggs.
Khaleej Times had earlier quoted Dr Hussain Hassanein, Technical Secretary in the UAE Poultry Producers' Association, as saying that the total consumption of eggs in the country is around 1.3 billion per annum while the local production is just 550 million eggs a year, less than 40 per cent of the demand.