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Switzerland raises egg imports to meet strong demand

Federal Council authorises more egg imports due to strong demand
Federal Council authorises more egg imports due to strong demand Keystone-SDA

The Swiss government has increased the import quota of eggs with domestic producers struggling to meet high demand.

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From 1 June and until the end of the year, additional imports of a maximum of 10,000 table eggs will be possible at a reduced rate of duty.

+ Egg shortages force Swiss food industry to rethink

The Swiss population’s demand for eggs is rising sharply. This is shown by market data from the Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG). According to the data, per capita consumption climbed by 9% to 198 eggs per year from 2023 to 2024 alone.

Although Swiss production increased by 2.8% during this period, some of the additional consumption will have to be covered by imports, the Federal Council announced. This quota has already been permanently increased by over 3,500 tonnes to 21,000 tonnes for the current year.

However, according to the Federal Council, it was already foreseeable at the beginning of February that even this increased quantity would not be sufficient to cover domestic demand until the end of 2025.

The tariff quota was already 40% exhausted in the first quarter of 2025.

The current tariff quota will therefore be temporarily increased by a further 48% to 31,000 tonnes. The egg industry submitted the request for this. This means that around 158 million additional eggs can be imported at the low tariff rate by the end of the year.

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Translated from German by DeepL/mga

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