Mozambique: Confusion over seizure of eggs in Nampula reaches strange contours – O País

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Mozambique: Confusion over seizure of eggs in Nampula reaches strange contours – O País

2:49 CAT | 14 Dec 2022

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: O País]

The price of a favo [‘honeycomb’] of 30 eggs rose by 160 meticais in a week in Nampula, after the INAE seized more than 12,000 ‘favos’ of eggs from Malawi. National production does not cover domestic consumption needs.

Last week, the National Inspection of Economic Activities (INAE) seized more than 12,000 ‘favos’ of eggs from Malawi (more than 360,000 eggs) which it found for sale in the city of Nampula at a price of 190 meticais per ‘favo’, against the normal price of 230 meticais.

As a result, there is a shortage of eggs in the ‘Capital of the North’, and the few eggs that remain are being sold at 350 meticais per ‘favo’, an increase of 120 meticais.

“We are selling a ‘favo’ for 300 meticais, but even today (Tuesday) it will rise to 400 meticais,” warns Alfane Momade, an egg dealer who saw part of his stock seized last week.

Last week’s operation was the result of a complaint made by Novos Horizontes, a large-scale producer of broiler chickens and eggs located in Rapale, 20 kilometres from the city of Nampula. This same company is currently selling eggs, but retailers say they don’t have enough stock to satisfy the market.

“When we buy a ‘favo’ at 280 meticais, we resell it at 300 meticais and have a margin of 20 meticais,” explained Anito Momade, another egg dealer in the city of Nampula.

In Nampula central market, the situation is the same. Vendor Absinel Domingos says that: “Malawian eggs are affordable, and we traders but at a reasonable price. The national egg is priced too high.”

Customer Dulce Armando stopped buying as much as she wanted, because the price exceeded her expectations. “I wanted to buy two ‘favos’ but I gave up and only bought one,” she said.

The provincial director of Industry and Commerce in Nampula plays down the crisis and says that there are enough eggs to supply the market.

“We currently have a stock of 531,000 eggs and, with this stock, the production we have and the production we see every day, there is no reason for there to be a shortage of eggs. What must be happening is hoarding by some merchants, just to be able to circumvent the rules guaranteeing a good business environment,” he says.

READ: Mozambique: INAE goes hunting for smuggled eggs in the streets of Nampula – Ikweli

But our reporter knows that egg production in Nampula province is not enough to satisfy internal demand. World Health Organization figures suggest that each person consumes, on average, one egg per day and, according to the Provincial Services of Economic Activities of Nampula, the province, with about six million inhabitants, currently boasts annual production of 36 million eggs.

Source: O País