Ultra Source Ltd was formed solely to obtain government contracts to import eggs and did not exist before a recent egg shortage, Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said yesterday.
Last year, the government contracted Ultra Source and other entities to import eggs from Australia, Brazil, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey and the US to alleviate a domestic egg shortage.
The company came under scrutiny as some questioned how the Kaohsiung-based company, allegedly established with registered capital of NT$500,000 (US$15,434 at the current exchange rate), was able to secure a US$700 million contract from the government.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan People’s Party caucus
The Ministry of Agriculture has said that Ultra Source was not formed immediately after the ministry in 2022 announced plans to import eggs from Japan.
However, Huang told a news conference in Taipei that the government was covering up the origins of Ultra Source.
“What the ministry did not tell the public is that Ultra Source, which was established on Sept. 5, 2022, received payments from the National Animal Industry Foundation to import eggs on Sept. 27, 2022. The ministry’s business records clearly showed that the ministry had decided to give the contract to Ultra Source before it was formed,” Huang said.
He said that when asked whether the foundation had signed a NT$200 million contract to import eggs from Japan, the ministry first said there was no procurement contract, before later saying that part of the egg imports was executed based on a contract.
The ministry has been reluctant to disclose the exact amount of money Ultra Source earned from the contract, he said.
Regarding the funding used to procure eggs from Japan, Huang said the ministry on March 1 said that the money came from the foundation’s own budget, but on Tuesday last week said the foundation received NT$170 million in subsidies for the procurement.
The ministry has also given inconsistent reports about the eggs imported from Japan by Ultra Source, he said.
The ministry’s lists of orders showed that Ultra imported 25.4 million eggs in 2022, but the ministry on May 30 said the company imported 184,320 cases of eggs, and on Tuesday last week said it imported 153,504 cases, he said.
The ministry failed to explain the difference of 5 million to 6 million eggs in its report, he said.
In response, the ministry said that Huang’s calculation was incorrect, as he failed to account for the difference in the packaging units for eggs between Japan and Taiwan.
In Taiwan, a case contains 12kg of eggs, while a case in Japan contains 10kg of eggs, it said.
A total of 30.81 million eggs were imported from Japan, which weighed 1,843.2 tonnes, it said, adding that there were no missing egg imports.
The funding used to procure eggs was indeed from the foundation itself, it said, adding that the subsidy from the ministry was used to cover price differences, as well as warehousing and transportation fees.
There are two ways to procure eggs: cash on delivery and buyout, and signing a contract, the ministry said.
“We signed the contract with Brilliance Biotechnology and paid Ultra Source cash and bought out eggs they delivered. It is the way that the foundation often used to meet urgent short-term needs,” it said.
The ministry does not intervene in the establishment of a private firm simply for importing eggs, it said.
Information from the foundation showed that Brilliance secured permission from the ministry to import eggs from Japan, it said.
After the foundation obtained imported eggs, Brilliance then asked the ministry to make a payment to Ultra Source, the ministry said, adding that it did not pay Ultra Source until it ascertained the contractual relationship between Brilliance and Ultra Source.
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