Currently browsing posts about: Food-supply

This tweet makes me think it’s time to talk about supply chains.

Supply chains are a big problem right now, particularly for anything that has to be transported.

How come?  Pandemic-induced buying sprees, coupled with shortages of:

• Truck drivers.
• Shipping crates.
• Longshoremen.

Your local grocery store is out of items?  Join the crowd.

Around 18% of beverages, 15% of frozen foods, 16% of snacks, 15% of candy and 18% of bakery items were out of stock at stores during the week ending on October 3, according to the latest data from IRI, which tracks in-stock levels at leading US grocery chains, big box stores, pharmacies and wholesale clubs.

Before the pandemic, 7% to 10% of products were typically out of stock on shelves, according to IRI.

Nobody expects this situation to get better soon.

The UK newsletter, FoodManufacture, has done a special edition on supply chains (subscribe free at this link).

• Perfect storm hits the food and drink supply chain:  The food and drink supply chain has taken a beating over the past 18 months, with each new crisis piling on a new concern for business to worry about. But above all else, the main concern is how to get the supply chain moving again in spite of the recent heavy goods vehicle (HGV) driver shortage… Read  
• Food supply chain fragility: what can be done?  Events over the past 18 months have shown how fragile our global food system is. Fotis Fotiadis, chief executive officer and co-founder of Better Origin, discusses what can be done in this opinion piece… Read
• UK beef ban by China risks damaging future trade:  China’s latest ban of British beef imports over a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) could damage future trade with the country, according to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB)… Read
• Fuel shortages create challenges for food and drink:  As queues over the weekend left forecourts empty, members of the food and drink industry weighed in on how the fuel crisis has affected them… Read
• EVCL Chill enters administration placing jobs at risk:  Chilled food logistics business EVCL Chill Ltd – including EVCL One, EVCL Two and EVCL Three – has entered into administration after struggling with challenges created by the heavy goods vehicle (HGV) driver shortage, placing more than 400 jobs at risk… Read
• PepsiCo completes £14m distribution centre investment:  PepsiCo has completed a £14m upgrade of its Southern Region Distribution Centre (SRDC) based in Leicester… Read

Addition

10/22: An article I missed from Forbes in August.

I’ve been collecting items on the effects of Brexit on food issues in the UK.  These are even more complicated because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Just Food tracks this issue on an ongoing basis.

Here are some of the items collected by Just Food, along with some others I’ve picked up.

• UK food exports to EU improve after post-Brexit slump:  New data have revealed what happened to UK food exports to the European Union in February following a post-Brexit slowdown in January.
• UK meat, seafood exports to EU “picking up” – government:  There are indications UK exports of meat, seafood and dairy to the EU are recovering, the country’s government has suggested.
• UK meat processors warn of ongoing post-Brexit trade problems:  The British Meat Processors Association (BMPA), which represents businesses in the UK meat sector, has reported on its members’ experiences under post-Brexit trading rules.
• UK food, drink exports to EU slump post-Brexit:  The body representing UK food and drink manufacturers has highlighted the risk to small businesses amid a post-Brexit slump in exports to EU.
• Delays at the UK/EU border “getting worse”:  A new survey has asked supply chain managers to provide an update on problems at UK/European Union border posts.
• COVID-19: one year on – what now for food supply chain?  It has now been just over a year since the industry had to contend with the seismic impact of COVID-19, which brought a tremendous strain upon supply chains, retailers and producers… Read
• Brexit could cost UK meat exporters 50% of trade, says BMPA:  UK meat exporters could permanently lose half their trade due to Brexit, according to the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA)… Read
• British food faces ‘outright export bans’ in wake of EU exit:  British food businesses face ‘outright export bans’ and ‘structural’ barriers to trade with Europe thanks to bureaucracy linked with Brexit, according to the House of Lords EU Environment sub-committee… Read

If I weren’t so concerned about USDA’s dropping its data on calories in the food supply (see previous post), I might not have become so alarmed about the New York Times report on the sudden drop in estimates of sugar consumption.

USDA provides data on amounts reported as consumed, from 1970 to 2011.

• Refined Sugar
• Corn Syrup
• Other Sweeteners

These have declined, not necessarily because people are eating less but because USDA changed its methods.

According to the Times account:

In e-mails the center obtained through a Freedom of Information request, officials at sugar industry trade groups discussed the benefits of the lower estimate and how they might persuade the U.S.D.A. to make a change that would reduce it even more.

“We perceive it to be in our interest to see as low a per-capita sweetener consumption estimate as possible,” Jack Roney, director of economics and policy analysis at the American Sugar Alliance, wrote in an e-mail on March 30, 2011.

These figures are for reported intake—always an underestimate.

Reported intake is much lower than amounts of sugars available for consumption—amounts produced, less exports, plus imports—always an overestimate (the truth lies somewhere in between).

Food availability figures also indicate declines, but suggest that Americans have access to about 65 pounds a year each of table sugar and corn syrup for more than 130 pounds per year total.

None of these figures is precise.  But if the methods for calculation are the same every year, trends should be discernible.

Adjusting for waste introduces new sources of error and makes trends impossible to determine.

The USDA used to re-correct the entire food availability series when making changes in methods.  Why aren’t its data collectors doing that now?

We neeed USDA to be keeping up with food availability data.  What to do?

The FDA has just released a classy new report on Global Engagement, summarizing its efforts to deal with issues raised by the globalization of drugs, medical devices, and foods.

This is a big deal.  In 2009, 300,000 foreign facilities in more than 150 countries exported $2 trillion worth of FDA-regulated products to the United States.

Given these numbers alone, the FDA has some challenges.

In 2011, one out of every six FDA-regulated food products in the U.S. came from abroad.  Imports of fresh fruits, vegeta­bles, coffee, tea, and cocoa have more than doubled since 2000.

We import:

• 80 percent of seafood
• ~50 percent of fresh fruit
• ~20 percent of fresh vegetables

As the report explains,

• Many products entering the United States are made or grown in countries that lack the necessary regulatory over­sight to ensure their quality and safety.
• Greater numbers of suppliers, more complex products, and intricate multinational supply chains introduce risks to product safety and quality, including more oppor­tunities for economic adulteration and the spread of contaminated products.
• FDA can only realistically inspect a small percent­age (less than 3 percent) of the enormous volume of food products arriving at U.S. ports of entry, making it crucial that the Agency focus on ensuring that food products meet U.S. standards before they reach the United States.

To deal with this problem, the FDA has opened offices in:

• China: Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou
• India: New Delhi and Mumbai
• Latin America: San Jose, Costa Rica; Santiago, Chile; and Mexico City, Mexico
• Europe: Brussels, Belgium; London, United Kingdom; and Parma, Italy
• Asia-Pacific: FDA headquarters
• Sub-Saharan Africa: Pretoria, South Africa
• Middle East and North Africa: Amman, Jordan

The FDA seems seriously concerned about its global initiatives and the safety problems posed by our globalized food supply.

The volume seems impossible to manage.  Let’s hope the FDA’s efforts do some good.

Sunday’s New York Times has a beautifully illustrated account of how the U.S. food supply has changed since 1970, based on USDA food supply data. These do not measure actual food intake. Instead they measure food produced in the U.S., less exports, plus imports. The USDA has collected (or computed) such data since 1909 and to the extent that they are collected the same way every year, give a good idea of food trends, even though they overestimate actual food intake. I like this USDA data set a lot. It shows that production of all foods is up, with the biggest increases in fats (59%), grains (42%), and sugars and corn sweeteners (17%). Vegetables are up (15%), but so are corn sweeteners (373%), cream cheese (350%), and sour cream (275%). The article doesn’t say so, but calories went up from about 3,200 to 4,000, an increase of 800 calories per person per day since the 1970s. Why are Americans gaining weight? Duh. There is more food around and we are eating it.