Angola to destroy 11 million illegally imported eggs

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – In a continent where hundreds of millions are starving, a country said it would destroy some 11 million illegally imported chicken eggs to protect the local poultry industry.

The commerce ministry of Angola said the government needed to destroy the eggs as part of quota restrictions imposed in February on imports of 27 good and drink items.

These quotas apply mainly to staples such as flour and corn and also include eggs, chicken, fish, water and beer.

Angola lies in the southern end of Africa, where the UN Food and Agriculture Organization says about 240 million people were either hungry or undernourished in 2010.

“These eggs that were imported in large quantities – about 11 million – cannot be introduced into the market and will be destroyed,” the ministry said in a statement seen by AFP on Wednesday.

The maximum import quota for eggs was set at 156 million eggs per year.

About 25 million eggs are produced every month in Angola and the agriculture ministry wants the amount increased by another 15 million.

The country of 24 million people, half of whom live on less than two dollars a day, is heavily reliant on food imports, which account for 90 percent total food consumed.

The oil-rich country aims to boost productivity in agriculture.

Before its independence from Portugal in 1975, Angola was an agricultural powerhouse known for its coffee and rubber production.

But nearly three decades of civil war that left vast tracts of land littered with landmines robbed the country of its farming prowess.