Agriculture Supply Chain Problems
Agriculture Supply Chain Problems
The abrupt changes brought on by COVID-19 continues to cause problems for the ag industry’s supply chain, leaving every segment with unique challenges.
International Dairy Foods Association CEO Michael Dykes says the dairy industry is not immune to supply chain issues.
“It did for us as well, you’re exactly right. You know, I usually explain to people, about half of the dairy industry is in the food service business and the other half is in the retail business. And, then of course, you’ve got the exports that account for that, but exports just used for both as well.”
“So, overnight, we basically saw a loss of about half of our business through the food service with the closure of the schools, closure of the restaurants and so forth. And then, the retail side just could not make the switch overnight to double the volume of business just through warehousing, distribution, and logistics.”
“At the same time, we had a significant part of our milk, we estimated maybe upwards of 10% of our milk that didn’t have a home, we couldn’t make the transition to the retail quickly enough and just couldn’t handle the doubling of the volumes.”
The meat industry supply chain was also impacted – and continues to make the adjustments – as consumers now start to head back to restaurants and supermarkets.
