The contaminated egg crisis continued to spread in South Korea, with a total of 67 farms, mainly eco-friendly farms, found to have traces of banned or excessive levels of insecticides or pesticides as of Thursday morning.

As of Thursday, 67 farms were tested positive for restricted chemicals, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Since Tuesday, the Agriculture Ministry and the Food Safety Ministry have set out to survey 1,239 of the total 1,456 laying chicken farms nationwide, excluding those that have suspended operations. As of 10 a.m. Thursday, they had completed the inspections for 876 of them.

The surveyed farms included 683 eco-friendly ones and 193 ordinary ones.

Of the 683 eco-friendly farms, 63 had eggs with traces of insecticides or pesticides. Eggs from eco-friendly farms are usually sold at double the prices of normal ones and should not contain any traces of insecticides.

Among them, 28 eco-friendly farms showed excessive levels of chemicals, which means their eggs would not be qualified for commercial distribution even without the eco-friendly farm certification.

These farms were located nationwide, including 15 in Gyeonggi Province, five in South Chungcheong Province, three in South Gyeongsang Province, and one each in North Gyeongsang Province, South Jeolla Province, Gwangju and Gangwon Province.

Of the 193 ordinary farms, four showed traces of insecticides at levels beyond the permitted amount.

The detected substances from the 67 farms include fipronil and flufenoxuron, which are banned from use, as well as bifenthrin, flufenoxuron, and etoxazole.

The Agriculture Ministry said the eco-friendly farms that are found to have used any amount of chemicals would soon be deprived of their certificates.

Eggs from 32 farms will all be recalled and discarded, while eggs from the remaining 35 farms will be distributed in the market, but without the eco-friendly tag.

The nation has been gripped by an unprecedented egg scare since the revelation Tuesday that a farm in Namyangju was found with traces of fipronil, the same substance found in some eggs in Europe that has been stoking worldwide concern.

Fipronil is a broad-spectrum insecticide used to treat lice, fleas and ticks but it is not allowed to be used on chickens. Bifenthrin is often used on various agricultural crops to treat insects.

As the egg scare continued to spread, the government was slammed for mixing up a detailed list of regions and substances in their inspection, causing further confusion among consumers.

The Agriculture Ministry also faced rising criticism for having relied on private businesses to review procedures for issuing the eco-friendly certificates.

The ministry has been commissioning 64 private businesses to handle certifying processes. The businesses performed application reviews, as well as on-site investigations on behalf of the government.

The eco-friendly certificate has been of great appeal to farmers as they can get financial support from the government and can sell their products at a price that is twice higher than usual if their eggs are designated as “eco-friendly”

Meanwhile, the nation’s egg consumption plunged amid growing concerns over tainted eggs.

Since 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Korea’s leading market retailer E-mart has resumed selling eggs, but saw its egg sales drop by 40 percent compared to the same day last week. Its egg supply also dropped by 44 percent, the company added.

Later in the afternoon, the Agriculture Ministry said that two of the 57 farms supplying eggs for E-mart were found to have used excessive levels of bifenthrin. The retailer reportedly said the eggs from the farms in question accounted for less than 5 percent of its stock and that it has discarded all of the remaining eggs upon the notification.

Amid the public’s growing concerns and criticism over the government’s handling of the issue, Agriculture Minister Kim Yung-rok apologized at a conference at the National Assembly pm Thursday.

“The ministry will try its best to track down traces of contaminated eggs, including the ones used in other related industries,” Kim added.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)