He revealed this in a written parliamentary reply on 14 January in response to a question from Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Associate Professor Daniel Goh on the cause behind the increase in the price of eggs in the past six months and whether profiteering has been a factor.

Mr Chan said the import prices of eggs from some of Singapore's import sources have gone up significantly between June and November 2018, some by up to 50 percent.

"However, we also have other import sources where the import prices have either remained stable or shown slight declines of up to 7 percent. As such, the local retail price of eggs has increased around 4 percent over the same period," he said.

Mr Chan added that the price of eggs, and for that matter any food item, is determined by factors that include import prices, exchange rates, logistics costs and profit margins which suppliers can command.

To safeguard consumers' interests against sharp and erratic price changes, Mr Chan said a multi-prong strategy must be adopted.

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