A&W Restaurants earlier this year had to cancel a marketing deal for chicken tenders when its supplier couldn’t get extra stock of poultry. Instead, the chain, which has about 560 locations domestically, went with chili-cheese fries.
“Rather than running short, we replaced the promotion with something we could get,” said CEO Kevin Bazner. Supplies are improving, he said, but the chain is still only getting about 80% of what it orders, he said.
Not Enough Styrofoam
Food producers complain of supply-chain headaches of their own.
Land O’Lakes Inc., one of the biggest U.S. farm cooperatives, said its members are producing abundant amounts of milk at their dairies.
“The challenges in the supply chain continue to be issues such as driver shortages, labor and congestion at the ports,” Chief Supply Chain Officer Yone Dewberry said in an email.
Meat processors tell a similar tale. Earlier this month, one pork supplier couldn’t get products out because there weren’t enough Styrofoam trays, said Steve Meyer, a consulting economist for the National Pork Producers Council.
Labor issues are also roiling the meat supply. Plants are running but not at full capacity due to a lack of workers and truckers, Meyer said. The problem is so bad that at least one U.S. meatpacker has tried to lure new employees with Apple Watches.
In most cases, animals are being harvested but there aren’t enough people to handle normal value-added processes such as boning, trimming and curing. That may make it harder for grocery-store customers to find such high-value products as boneless hams.
Said Meyer, “You name it, it’s going wrong somewhere.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.