For anyone looking to make some easy money in Korea, get yourself some egg laying chickens that don’t have the bird flu virus because the price of eggs is skyrocketing:
A staff at an egg wholesale market in Jung-gu, Seoul, is counting stocks that are attracting desperate consumers. / Yonhap
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Friday it is discussing with Korea ways for American egg producers to tap into the Korean market that is suffering from an egg shortage as a result of a massive outbreak of avian influenza.
Amid the rising egg prices due to the outbreak of bird flu that was detected in November, the department spokesperson said that the U.S. and Korea are “engaged in technical discussions to provide access for U.S. egg producers to the Korean liquid egg market.
“Imports from the U.S. could help limit escalating production costs for processed food manufacturers in Korea and shield consumers from soaring egg prices,” the official added.
He did not mention when the U.S. will start exporting eggs to Korea.
Starting Saturday, the Korean discount store chain Homeplus raised the retail price of 30 eggs by 9.6 percent to 7,990 won ($6.67) at its 142 stores. Homeplus has increased its egg prices five times in a month and retail prices have jumped 31.4 percent over the month.
The latest price hike by Homeplus came a day after its rival Emart increased the price of 30 eggs by 8.6 percent to 7,580 won.
Officials of the companies expect egg prices to go up again ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday later this month. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but the Korean government has even dropped import tariffs against US eggs until June 30th.
