From Reuters, April 2:
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted global food supplies and is causing labour shortages in agriculture worldwide.
ARE WE FACING FOOD SHORTAGES?Regarding the crosscurrents:
Panic buying by shoppers cleared supermarket shelves of staples such as pasta and flour as populations worldwide prepared for lockdowns.
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.
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 increased production.
Food firms say panic purchasing is subsiding as households have stocked up and are adjusting to lockdown routines.
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 labour 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.
WHAT’S DISRUPTING FOOD SUPPLY?
With many planes grounded and ship containers hard to find after the initial coronavirus crisis in China, shipments of vegetables from Africa to Europe or fruit from South America to the United States are being disrupted.
A labour shortage could also cause crops to rot in the fields.
As spring starts in Europe, farms are rushing to find enough workers to pick strawberries and asparagus, after border closures prevented the usual flow of foreign labourers. France has called on its own citizens to help offset an estimated shortfall of 200,000 workers....MUCH MORE
(all via Reuters)
Ukraine slashes wheat exports to prop up domestic supplies
and
Russia sets grain export quota, to sell bulk of stockpile amid coronavirus
But:
With no fries sold, Dutch farmers face billion kilo potato pile
