Is coronavirus really causing the food supply chain to break? Here’s what experts say
John Tyson, chairman of the board at Tyson Foods Inc., spelled out a warning for consumers in a full-page advertisement published Sunday in The New York Times, Washington Post and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Six words among nearly 1,000 others stood out: “The food supply chain is breaking.”
Tyson said the prospect of closing down pork, beef and chicken plants because of the coronavirus has made the U.S. supply chain “vulnerable,” pointing to the potential for meat shortages and a growing concern over food waste.
For the most part, experts agree.
“They say it’s vulnerable and plants are closing down and there’s a limited supply — that’s a true statement,” Rob Handfield, a professor of operations and supply chain management at N.C. State University, told McClatchy News.
Plants closing
As the number of coronavirus cases continues to climb and stay-at-home orders force consumers inside, demand hasn’t slipped.
But the capacity to produce has.
Meat-packing plants belonging to Smithfield Foods in South Dakota, Missouri and Wisconsin were forced to close this month because of coronavirus outbreaks, McClatchy News reported, and at least five workers at JBM Foods Inc. and Tyson have died after being exposed to the virus.
The bottlenecks those shutdowns have caused are forcing farmers in Delaware and Maryland to humanely slaughter 2 million chickens, according to McClatchy News.
That’s who Handfield said he’s most concerned about — “it could put some farmers out of business,” he said.
A breakdown in the supply chain doesn’t mean the entire meat processing industry is likely to shut down, he clarified — but it will cause a significant strain.
Impact on stores
Handfield said he’d spoken with workers at grocery stores in North Carolina who told him they often don’t know what’s going to be on the next delivery truck until it arrives.
“Everybody is trying to replenish their stocks as quickly as possible,” he told McClatchy. “They just don’t know how long it’s going to take to get supplies back on the shelves.”
In the meantime, he echoed a message Tyson shared on Sunday: There will be a reduction in products consumers are used to seeing.
Manufacturers are producing what they can, Handfield said, but panic buying and hoarding won’t help.
Products like toilet paper, cleaning supplies and meat will reappear in “spurts and starts” as they become available again, he said. The produce industry could also experience problems if there aren’t enough migrant workers to pick the crops.
“Until we get a vaccine in the next year, we’re going to see starts and stops in the economy and periodic shortages of produce and proteins,” Handfield said. “It’s not going to go away. It’s going to be a slow recovery.”
‘We’re not going to starve’
That doesn’t, however, equate to a nationwide food shortage.
“I don’t think (consumers) should be worried about running out of food,” Handfield said.
It hasn’t disappeared, but between bottlenecks at processing facilities and people hoarding food, McClatchy News reported some grocery stores are experiencing shortages.
Unfortunately there’s no easy fix to that, Handfield said.
No one knows how long the virus will last, when stay-at-home orders will be lifted or treatments approved. The outcome, at least in the short-term, is hazy at best.
“It’s going to require everyone to just hang on and try to get through this,” he told McClatchy. “We’re not going to starve to death by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s going to be a rough time for some time to come.”
This story was originally published April 27, 2020 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Is coronavirus really causing the food supply chain to break? Here’s what experts say."
