About one million and a half eggs are expected to arrive in two aircraft from Portugal and Ukraine in the next two days • Ministry of Agriculture warns: "Do not buy unsupervised eggs"

• Egg delivery from Portugal expected to arrive in Israel // Photo: Joshua Yosef

Egg shortage in the shadow of the Corona crisis: Tomorrow morning (Tuesday) is expected to land first airborne egg delivery from Portugal, which will include more than a million eggs. On Wednesday, another plane is expected to land from Ukraine with about half a million eggs. Additional air deliveries are expected during the holidays.

These shipments are joined by more than 100 egg containers totaling more than 30 million eggs that are on their way to Israel and will reach the sea by the end of April. The Ministry of Agriculture, in collaboration with the Prime Minister's Office and under his guidance, initiated and led the complex process of allowing importers to import eggs by fly, in order to reduce the time required to move to Israel and to reduce the shortage of eggs for food.

As mentioned, the Ministry of Agriculture opened a quota for importing eggs from EU countries in January. In light of the Corona crisis, the firm has increased its 100 million egg-free quota for egg importers, but due to increasing domestic demand in these countries and due to transportation and sailing times, marketers are unable to import eggs as a response to increasing consumer demand. As a result, the Ministry of Agriculture has formulated a support procedure aimed at reducing the egg shortage by bringing the eggs to Israel on the fly. Under the impression that egg, being a regulated product, does not pay for flight importers.

The Ministry of Agriculture has asked for a dedicated budget to support importers who will work to bring eggs in aircraft, too, from countries where egg quality is safe. The budget set to support egg importers for the eggs flown is about NIS 12 million. The ministry emphasizes that due to the lack of eggs, they are also sold among those who are not stamped and unregulated, both from the breeders and from the Palestinian Authority. These are eggs that are unworthy of edible. In the current situation, eating such eggs can cause morbidity and burden the hospitals. Therefore, precisely now, care should be taken to buy eggs in stores or in marketing chains, and not in makeshift markets, not in coops or from door to door. The eggs must be sealed as required, and packed in closed packaging on all sides.