Food Shortage Concerns

As you’ve most likely already noticed, panic buying by shoppers cleared supermarket shelves of staples such as pasta and flour as populations worldwide prepared for lockdowns. I myself made sure that I stocked up on all the necessary items that I needed in my home. With this surplus of panic buying, meat and dairy producers as well as fruit and vegetable farmers struggled to shift supplies from restaurants to grocery stores, creating the perception of shortages for consumers.

I’ve read though that retailers and authorities say there are no underlying shortages and supplies of most products have been or will be replenished. Bakery and pasta firms in Europe and North America have also increased production.The food firms say panic purchasing is subsiding as households have stocked up and are adjusting to lockdown routines, which I find to be true from the item availability increase more recently.

I’ve read the logistics to get food from the field to the plate, however, are being increasingly affected and point to longer-term problems. In the short-term, lack of air freight and trucker shortages are disrupting deliveries of fresh food. Longer-term, lack of labor is affecting planting and harvesting and could cause shortages and rising prices for staple crops in a throwback to the food crises that shook developing nations a decade ago. I can only hope that this will not cause a spike in food cost, but it seems to be inevitable at some point.