Industries adjust to pared-back hours and shoppers cause unexpected surges, but numbers point to plenty of supply.
Meat, dairy and produce groups as well as federal regulators say the U.S. has an ample amount of products in cold storage to handle the unexpected demand for food and household products from Americans.
On Tuesday, federal meat inspection agencies said they continue to operate as normal. Food imports continued to flow across the Southern border despite restrictions on nonessential travel. And the Trump administration and grocery executives stressed that the supply chain is holding firm, even if consumers see long lines at stores across the country.
Story continuesThe food industry, for its part, is urging consumers to remain calm and avoid hoarding, suggesting that fears of shortages are overblown. Planning for absenteeism is a regular part of its food safety operations and the department is closely tracking the status of employees who are sick or out for other reasons, USDA said in a statement on Tuesday.
“It is impossible to predict, however, the scenarios for individual plants across the nation,” she said. “Many companies are operating normally but they have contingency plans to address the threat of coronavirus.”At the retail level, Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen told CNBC that grocery stores are “getting deliveries every day,” including household goods like toilet paper, though he acknowledged there’s a shortage of hand sanitizers with “very little coming in.
Laura Strange, a spokesperson for the National Grocers Association, which represents independent grocery stores, said the group’s members are hiring cashiers and staffing up for round-the-clock restocking. He said fresh foods like produce, seafood and deli products sourced from local suppliers are readily available to shoppers.The U.S. imports nearly half of its fresh fruits and vegetables from Mexico. Of the $26 billion worth of agricultural goods shipped across the southern border each year, more than $13 billion is produce.
Chamberlain said his business has experienced a drop in sales to restaurant and food service sectors like hotels and cruise lines, but grocery retailers have made up for those losses. Friedmann said the “severe backup in the global supply chain” emanating from China — which shut down factories and ports earlier this year, causing trans-Pacific shipments to plummet — has also led to logjams throughout the U.S.
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