Food Shortage
-
Maybe, maybe not, but I found this statement interesting...
Most of my role is working with non-commercial (schools) and USDA compliance and utilization of commodities. My colleagues deal with restaurants, hospitals, etc. On a zoom meeting yesterday with a major vegetable supplier I asked about the supply forecast. I was told that the supply outlook is good with no shortages being foreseen. The issue right now was due to the 'flip flop' between retail and foodservice. I will try to explain, but I'm not the greatest without many many words....LOL At the end of the pack year, which is right now, all of the vegetables are put in tins (what you see as the #10 cans or the #404 at the grocery store). Usually a higher percentage is put into foodservice (#10) because they use about 60-65% of the vegetable crop. During Covid, that utilization flip flopped from foodservice to retail because we all had to stay home. The product had already been packed, so there wasn't anything left over for retail once it all had sold. So we have an abundance of foodservice pack right now and less retail because it wasn't planned for. Now that we are packing again, the supply chain should resolve itself, with the exception of root crops which aren't harvested for packing until October. But, what is important is they are saying the crops did well. (Remember, we are talking about the canned/frozen vegetables.)
Now, to go a little further down into what this person is talking about, is that most of the harvest has been pretty good, but production has now resumed packing the majority of food in #10 cans.
That means that any major "lock-down" such as we had previously, will result in empty shelves again, possibly worse than before.
