Narong said in a statement that farmers, big and small, have faced a loss this year due to oversupply - 27 million to 28 million eggs a day - which forced them to sell eggs at Bt1.70 on average each against the production cost of Bt1.95 to Bt2.

"Reducing the production of eggs should bring about balance, especially in the domestic market. Furthermore, it will also maintain the stability of egg prices, which will help all egg farmers to work profitably in the long term, and it will definitely be good for the industry," Narong said. New guidelines, consisting of three stages, have been drawn up to combat the surplus.

The preliminary stage is to reduce the amount of imported stock to correspond to market demand, which is currently estimated at 25 million eggs a day.

This can be done through the Livestock Department's management of chicken stocks, which is capable of tracing and monitoring the number of hens and keeping detailed information about them.

As part of the guidelines, a medium-term plan has also been devised involving the reduction of chick numbers by removing fertilised eggs from incubators. Lastly, an immediate plan is to retire old hens, which would lower the egg supply.

There is also a plan to export surplus eggs.