Unwilling to absorb the recent 30% increase in the price of feed, the leaders of Israel’s egg industry announce they are pained to declare a delivery strike but they have tried reasoning with treasury officials but the government simply does not respond.
The egg growers explain that it is a known fact the price of feed has increased significantly, yet the government appears to think they can and will absorb the loss, which representatives explain is a non-starter. As such, the delivery of health minister supervised and approved eggs will halt beginning Friday 17 Cheshvan 5773.
The egg industry is seeking an additional 4 agorot per egg, another 1.20 NIS per flat of 30 eggs. The government however is unwilling to approve the increase.
Moti Alkabetz, who represents the egg industry, explains “We are sorry, aware this hits large and low-income families especially hard but we cannot lose money and the current reality demands the increase.”
Alkabetz adds “for comparison sake, the price of eggs in the United States went up 22% in recent months so it is not like we are being extreme here.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
This is what happens when you have government control of prices. Why should someone work for nothing, or for less than he could get doing something else? Eventually Atlas shrugs, and you get this happening. Even Chazal, who (not being economic experts) did approve some limits on food prices, allowed 100% profit on the sale of eggs. And that’s net profit, not gross markup. An egg seller is entitled, according to Chazal, to add up all his expenses, apportion them to the product, and then double it. (In practise, this makes the limit meaningless, because nobody could get away with such a high profit margin. Someone else would enter the market and bid him down.)