Food supply chain turmoil points to summer shortages
The federal government is worried about the country’s food security as the COVID- 19 pandemic disrupts supplies and causes labour shortages.
Food prices may rise and some products could become unavailable in supermarkets, Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said.
The threat comes after the spread of COVID-19 temporarily shut down one of Canada’s largest beef processing plants in April and forced some poultry and pork facilities to temporarily idle or slow output. A similar wave of outbreaks at meat plants in the U. S. has already withered available supplies at grocery stores and driven up retail prices for beef and pork.
“We have plenty of food that will continue to reach grocery stores on a regular basis. But it is clear that COVID-19 is causing significant disruptions in our food supply chains,” Bibeau said by email. “As a result, Canadians could see less variety in grocery stores or a fluctuation in food prices.”
An outbreak at Cargill Inc.’s beef plant in High River, Alta., sickened nearly half of the facility’s 2,000 workers. Virus outbreaks at JBS SA’S plant in Brooks, Alberta have also prompted slowdowns and the supply squeeze is already forcing companies such as Mcdonald’s Corp.’s Canadian unit to import beef to supplement their needs.
The two Alberta plants account for roughly 85 per cent of Canada’s beef slaughter capacity. “We will continue to use imported beef until there is a continuous and consistent supply of Canadian raw material,” Mcdonald’s Canada said Wednesday in an email.
In Canada, there’s also a huge dependency on temporary foreign workers to plant, tend and harvest fruit and vegetable crops. More than 60,000 workers help do everything from prune apple trees to plant asparagus and farmers are struggling to get enough labour to do the work.
So far, only about half the workers have arrived.