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Moon Hong-nam, a pastry chef in Seoul, needs at least 15,000 eggs a
day to bake cakes, but after South Korea's worst outbreak of bird
flu and a surge in the prices of eggs, he is considering changing
his menu.
"We can ride it out through Christmas with what (supplies) we have
secured," said Moon, who works at the LÈSCARGOT bakery in the South
Korean capital. "But if (bird flu) continues until January, we will
have to raise prices inevitably and make bakery items that do not
need eggs."
About 20 million birds, or 12.2 percent of South Korea's poultry
stock, have been culled to control the outbreak. Most of the birds
culled are egg-laying hens.
The flu has spread in other parts of Asia as well, particularly in
Japan.
In South Korea, the average retail price for 30 eggs has risen
nearly 25 percent to 6,781 won ($5.68) since the outbreak began on
Nov.18, - the highest in more than three years, according to
state-run Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp.
According to data from the institution, it is the highest
month-on-month increase in egg prices in nearly a decade.
The price hike is putting a dent in the wallets of Koreans, who
usually eat more eggs in the winter, including in bread and kimbap,
a Korean sushi roll.
Feeling the supply pinch, Lee Sang-hyup, the 55-year-old owner of
Jeonju Restaurant, said he has cut down the amount of fluffy steamed
eggs served free with the main dish, spicy braised hairtail fish.
"If I can't have enough eggs, then I have no choice but to stop
serving it," said Lee, adding that it was the first time since he
started the restaurant three years ago that he was rationing
portions of the side dish.
Besides the price increases, some stores are restricting egg
purchases.
"We are limiting the amount of egg trays each customer can buy to
one because of the egg supply shortage, and it seems it will last
for five to six months so we will continue to restrict egg purchases
for a while," said Lee Won-il, a manager at Nonghyup, one of the
country's supermarket chains.
To ease the shortage, South Korea's agriculture ministry is seeking
to import egg-laying chickens and eggs from the United States, Spain
and New Zealand.
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Analysts said the egg shortage is expected to last at least one year
as it could take up to two years for egg and poultry industry to
raise baby chickens and rebuild flocks.
"Economic losses caused by (avian influenza) is estimated to cost up
to 1.4 trillion won ($1.17 billion) if 30 percent of Korea's poultry
population gets infected," said Chung Min, an analyst at Hyundai
Research Institute.
CHICKEN SALES
Although egg consumption is likely to be steady despite the higher
prices, the bird flu has cut into sales of chicken meat.
Lee at the Nonghyup store said chicken sales had dropped 25 percent
since the bird flu outbreak, while pork sales jumped about 30
percent.
Other major discount stores also saw a drop in chicken sales despite
discounts. Chicken sales at E-Mart fell 15.4 percent in the first 15
days of December from a year earlier, whereas imported pork sales
surged about 85 percent during the same period, according to E-Mart
data.
Kim Dong-jin, manager at Korea Poultry Association, said the recent
bird flu outbreak poses a serious threat to the poultry industry as
it could lose market share to imported chicken meat from Brazil and
the United States, while it can't supply enough eggs.
"(Korean poultry farmers) are in a double whammy situation," said
Kim.
"The government needs to come up with better measures to ease
(farmers') concerns."
(Reporting By Jane Chung; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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