Omicron is leading to more food outages at grocery stores
The highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus is disrupting already stressed food supply chains, sickening so many workers that more shortages at grocery stores are all but certain.
Supermarkets have been struggling to keep food fully stocked throughout the pandemic as a result of labor shortfalls in every part of the food system, from farms to manufacturers to distributors. Now omicron is bringing the problem to a new level. The variant is raging across the U.S. and raising health concerns that many thought vaccines had put to rest. Schools and day care centers are seeing closures again, keeping more Americans from work.
All of that will help fuel wage increases and price surges for consumers, as well as 2020-style food outages.
“We’re already seeing bare shelves,” said Bindiya Vakil, CEO of supply chain consultant Resilinc Corp. “Labor shortages due to omicron are going to exacerbate the issue.”
Michigan-based grocery distributor and store operator Spartannash Co. is seeing a tripling of cases in recent weeks among its staff. About 1 percent of its 18,000-person workforce reported having the virus in recent weeks, compared with about one-third of a percent a couple of months ago. The company has been able to fulfill orders, but with delays. The employees who are available are working more.
“It’s harder because we’re asking people to work overtime,” CEO Tony Sarsam said. “We’re stretching ourselves.”
On the receiving side, the company is having trouble getting supplies from food manufacturers, especially processed items such as cereal and soup, Sarsam said. “The manufacturers can’t get labor,” he said.
Meat companies are in focus because major outbreaks at plants in 2020 led to shortages and spikes in prices. Currently, beef and pork producers aren’t reporting significant operations issues, but there are signs of declining productivity. For instance, the number of hogs slaughtered at one point last week was down 5.5 percent from a year ago, and cattle slaughter was down 3.6 percent, according to U.S. Agriculture Department data.
More food inspectors are calling in sick, too, said Paula Soldner, chair of the National Joint Council of Food Inspections Locals. “The delta variant didn’t have a whole lot of impact on the workforce,” she said, but “omicron is nailing us.” This comes at a time when inspectors are already in short supply throughout the country. In central Nebraska, for example, vacancies are as high as 35 percent, she said. Inspectors are integral in meat plants, where they look at every processed animal by law.
Food-makers Conagra Brands and Campbell Soup are seeing upticks in Covid-driven absenteeism among workers. Both companies are framing it as another disruption among many and have been aggressively hiring for some time .