Sri Lankan government raided private warehouses outside capital Colombo to seize thousands of tonnes of sugar last week. The raids came a day after the country declaring a state of emergency due to food shortages.
Major General Senarath Niwunhella, who was named commissioner-general of essential services told AFP at least 13 000 tonnes of white and brown sugar were found in the raids.1
"Today we started with sugar and will expand this action to other commodities like wheat flour and rice too if importers do not release their stocks to the market," he said.
Niwunhella said the objective of the raids is to prevent hoarding, adding that seized stocks will be given to state-owned retail stores to sell for below the open market price.
AFP reported the country is experiencing sharp price rises for rice, onions, and potatoes, while long queues have formed outside stores because of shortages of milk powder, kerosene oil, and cooking gas.
Experts blame the food crisis on a shortage of foreign exchange to import and maintain buffer stocks.
The country’s foreign reserves plummeted to $2.8 billion by the end of July from $7.5 billion in November 2019.2
The Sri Lankan rupee has lost almost 20% against the US dollar since the economy contracted by a record 3.6% in 2020 due to COVID-19 measures.
References:
1 Sri Lanka raids sugar stocks as food shortages bite - AFP
2 Sri Lanka declares emergency over food, forex crisis - AA
Supermarket shortages may last 'FOREVER': Food and Drink Federation chief gives stark warning that the days of shoppers getting anything they want are 'over' - as farmer says crisis is 'killing small business'
- Warning came from Ian Wright, CEO of Food and Drink Federation, who said issues would 'only get worse'
- Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones MBE, who runs popular Black Farmer food range, shared picture of empty shelves
- Said smaller business like his were suffering because producers had begun only fulfilling orders of big rivals
Empty shelves in the water aisle of the Tesco store at St Rollox in Glasgow in July. The boss of the Food and Drink Federation has said that the days when UK consumers could expect to pick up nearly whatever product they want whenever they want from supermarket shelves are over
https://www.producer.com/livestock/drought-forces-north-american-ranchers-to-sell-off-their-future/
Drought forces North American ranchers to sell off their future
Your Food Prices Are at Risk as the World Runs Short of Workers
Whether it’s fruit pickers, slaughterhouse workers, truckers or waiters, the world’s food ecosystem is buckling due to a shortage of staff.
Farms are set to kill and burn 100,000 pigs because of a post-Brexit butchers' shortage: Industry chiefs vent fury at Priti Patel for leaving key staff off list - but keeping ballet dancers
- Farmers may be forced to destroy nearly 100,000 pigs due to butcher shortage
- Figures say the animals face being killed due to post-Brexit shortage of workers
- Home Secretary Priti Patel hasn't included job on a list of shortage occupations
- The list would allow foreign butchers to enter the UK on a skilled worker visa
Farmers could be forced to destroy nearly 100,000 pigs because of a post-Brexit shortage of butchers to work in slaughterhouses, according to leading figures (stock image)
No milk or water: Shoppers face shortages at UK grocery stores ..
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KM
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10011957/10-DAYS-fix-CO2-c...
warnings that Britain could face food shortages in a WEEK with up to 100,000 pigs needing to be slaughtered on farms and put in mass graves
A deal to end the C02 crisis could be done today, Kwasi Kwarteng has said amid fears that Britain only has a week before food shortages hit.
The Business Secretary said he is hopeful of an 'imminent' breakthrough after intense discussions with key producers - with taxpayers expected to pay up to solve the problem.
A 70 percent rise in wholesale gas prices in the past month has prompted US-owned CF Industries to temporarily shut down its two fertiliser plants in Teeside and Merseyside
As a by-product they produce 60 per cent of the UK's CO2, which is used in a staggering range of areas from food to the nuclear sector and NHS.
The gas is used to stun animals for slaughter, package meat and also in refrigeration systems. It is also used in fizzy drinks, beer, cheese, fruit and vegetables and crumpets, among other items.
In a round of interviews this morning, Mr Kwarteng said: 'Time is of the essence, and that's why I spoke to the CEO, speaking to him twice in the last two days, and we're hopeful that we can get something sorted today and get the production up and running in the next few days.'
Mr Kwarteng conceded 'it will come at some cost… it may come at some cost, we're still hammering out details, we're still looking at a plan'.
But he added: 'I have to say if there is support provided, that will be on a temporary basis, that's not something that we want to do indefinitely.'
Ian Wright, chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation, warned certain goods will be in short supply unless an urgent solution is found
Sep 21, 2021
KM
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10021231/Now-PETROL-ration...
Downing Street is bracing for a new 'Winter of Discontent' after BP and Tesco RATION fuel and shut stations, supermarkets warn of food shortages and energy firms go bust as gas prices soar
Downing Street today signalled it is bracing for a 'winter of discontent' after BP and Tesco were forced to ration fuel and shut stations, supermarkets warned of food shortages and more energy firms went bust amid rising gas prices.
Number 10 said this afternoon that 'we acknowledge there are issues facing many industries across the UK' as the nation heads into the colder months.
The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman insisted there is no shortage of fuel and urged people to continue to fill up their vehicles 'as normal'.
The spokesman stressed the UK has 'very resilient and robust' supply chains, but the admission of challenges ahead is likely to spark fears of potential disruption.
BP has said it will restrict deliveries of fuel because of a lack of HGV drivers, which has also impacted supermarkets and raised fears of food and even toy shortages over the Christmas period.
The oil giant is understood to have informed the Government that its ability to transport petrol and diesel from its refineries is being heavily impacted by the supply chain crisis.
BP's Head of UK Retail, Hanna Hofer, told the Cabinet Office last Thursday that it was important that the Government understood the 'urgency of the situation' which she branded 'bad, very bad'.
Ms Hofer warned that the company had 'two thirds of normal forecourt stock levels required for smooth operations' and that levels were 'declining rapidly'. The restricting of deliveries is expected to begin 'very soon'.
Meanwhile, there have been reports of Tesco petrol stations closing or running out of fuel in Dorset, the Isle of Wight and Devon. ExxonMobil, which operates Esso, added that some of its 200 Tesco Alliance sites were affected.
The news is the latest sign of the UK struggling to cope because of an ongoing shortage of HGV drivers which comes alongside a worsening energy crisis.
Avro Energy and Green yesterday became the latest energy firms to go out of business as soaring gas prices continued to batter the sector.
Wholesale prices for gas have increased 250 per cent since the start of the year, and 70 per cent since August, meaning firms are buying energy for more than they sell it to customers.
Nine firms have now ceased trading this year, with the head of regulator Ofgem warning more are likely to follow suit, leaving 'well above' hundreds of thousands of customers in limbo.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng today suggested people should be hoping for a warm autumn to ease gas prices as he said the weather is the 'single most important determinant' of costs.
Food supply chains have been placed under intense stress in recent weeks because of the shortage of around 100,000 HGV drivers - with empty shelves across many UK supermarkets as a result.
Supply chains were further disrupted after two plants that produce 60 per cent of the UK's CO2 were shut down amid the rising gas prices. CO2 is used for everything from the humane slaughter of chickens and pigs, to putting the fizz in soft drinks and creating packaging that keeps foods fresh.
Now, there are fears that shortages could bite households in the run-up to Christmas.
The classic Christmas dinner could be decimated, with turkey, pigs in blankets, potatoes and brussel sprouts all at risk. Meanwhile, toys, vinyl and books could also experience shortages - with experts even warning of Christmas tree issues.
Despite the Government agreeing a deal to restart production at the CO2 plants, industry bodies have warned that consumers may still see a hike in food prices, particularly if the cost of carbon dioxide rises.
The Government's deal with CF Industries is only in place for three weeks - leading to fears that the issues could start up again in the run-up to the festive period.
An out of use sign on a petrol pump at a BP garage on Speke Hall Road, Liverpool. The HGV driver shortage has hit oil giant BP with deliveries of petrol and diesel to forecourts across the UK set to be reduced
Sep 23, 2021
KM
Source
ShortageWatch: "Sorry - No French Fries With Any Order, We Have No Potatoes"
Today I’m going to follow up on last week’s issue on shortages. I got a TON of feedback, and the topic even came up at last week’s Federal Trade Commission meeting. The good news is that shortages are now on the political radar, with one FTC Commissioner talking about the rise of “Too Big to Fail” industrial firms causing shortages across the economy.
And now…
"Sorry. No French Fries with any order. We have no potatoes."
In the last BIG issue, I asked you for help identifying shortages in your neck of the woods. Hundreds of you responded, so I’ll talk about some of the shortage stories you are sharing, as well as how this problem is resonating among policymakers.
My favorite story is quintessentially American, and un-American, at the same time. It’s from a Florida realtor who was in a hurry and stopped at a Burger King for lunch. He saw a sign, "Sorry. No French Fries with any order. We have no potatoes." At first he thought he was imagining things. What kind of fast food place runs out of fries? Is this, he wondered, a sign of things to come?
It’s a good question. Fast food exists in a land of plenty, of surplus, of mass produced food with a reliable infrastructure of trucks, trains, farms, and distributors. Shortages of everyday goods conflicts not only with most of our lived experiences, but also with our very conception of who we are. There’s a name for this framework, and it’s called affluence.
In 1958, John Kenneth Galbraith coined the term “The Affluent Society” to describe a nation beyond material concerns, a nation with immense unthinkable wealth. In such a world, with consumer sovereignty paramount, the only way to go without is if you cannot afford something, not if society can’t produce it. Think about all the politicians who say ‘in the wealthiest country in the world surely we can afford XYZ.’ For the last sixty years, with the exception of the oil crisis in the 1970s, we haven’t had to think about production. If you have the money, you can get the stuff. But now our production systems, once so resilient and strong they appeared invisible, are breaking down.
So what is happening in the case of this particular Burger King? It’s hard to say, but the problem is clearly widespread. Taco Bell, Chick-fil-A, and Starbucks are having trouble sourcing ingredients, as are school and college cafeterias. Here’s one notice posted on Reddit on school districts having similar issues.
One culprit is the food distribution industry, which is highly consolidated (due to the standard litany of anti-competitive tactics like mergers and exclusive contracts with customers and suppliers). Problems at some of the biggest firms, like Sysco, have even forced summer camps and restaurants in some areas to shut down.
Burger King uses McLane distribution, a leading firm for grocery distribution. McLane is having trouble recruiting drivers, which is a clear problem everywhere. You’ll hear a number of causes for this shortage, from poaching by Amazon to a large number of truckers retiring rather than be on the road during the pandemic. Here’s a BIG reader on the problem.
If you listen to transportation executives, they’ll tell you the real cause. “It comes down to money for drivers in many respects,” said Mark McKendry, regional vice president of intermodal at NFI Industries. “If we get the pay right, you know, we’ll have a little more flexibility.”
Driving a truck, which used to be a middle class job in the 1970s, has become a cyclical low-paid profession with high burnout and little stability, a so-called “sweatshop on wheels.” While it’s tempting to blame this situation on trucking firms, the reality is that the problem is due to the market structure of transportation created by the deregulation of the 1970s. Prior to deregulation, state and national regulators set routes and prices for trucking firms, which allowed for sufficient margin to make trucking a unionized well-paid profession. Such rules raised shipping prices and were often needlessly bureaucratic, but also ensured the system would be stable, free from ‘ruinous competition,’ as well as absurd drops and spikes in pricing and wages.
Jimmy Carter, however, and a litany of Democrats, simply hated the union representing truck drivers, which was the Teamsters. Carter advisor Alfred Kahn, the economist who later deregulated airlines with Stephen Breyer’s help, was explicit about lowering trucker wages and breaking their political power. (Kahn, not coincidentally, is beloved by center-left antitrust scholars.)
The deregulation of the 1970s forced trucking firms to compete against each other to offer lower shipping prices, and the way they did this was by lowering pay to their drivers. Trucking on a firm-level became unpredictable and financially fragile, so for drivers the scheduling became nightmarish and unsustainable, even if the pay during boom times could be high. Today, few think trucking has a future, and even though pay is high, the scheduling is crushing drivers. And so, because we’ve allowed an unregulated trucking system for decades and treated truck drivers like crap for forty years, increasingly we can’t count on getting french fries from Burger King.
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/shortagewatch-sorry-no-french-f...
Sep 29, 2021
KM
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10070199/Schools-told-stoc...
School dinner choice is slashed and staff told to stockpile 'long-life, dried, tinned and frozen food' amid fears suppliers will struggle to keep children fed with shortages this winter
School dinner choices are being slashed and staff advised to stockpile essential food supplies amid fears suppliers will struggle to keep children properly fed this winter due to supply shortages.
ISS, one of the UK's largest canteen suppliers, has reportedly told 450 schools it is having issues with 'sourcing, packing and distribution', predicting that the problem will 'get worse' over the winter and will continue until February.
School canteens were advised by ISS in an email to stockpile 'long life, dried, tinned and frozen' products to make sure children can still be fed in a 'worse case scenario' this winter, according to ITV News.
In Lancashire, thousands of pupils are being offered a reduced menu, The Times reported.
'One school this week has not had a delivery of sandwiches. Another, no soup was sent. One school cook has even reported going out and purchasing additional items out of her own money as she was concerned about the choices on offer,' Samara Barnes, a Labour councillor, told Lancashire Live.
'This is a grave concern, especially given the fact that we know some children rely on their school dinner as their only meal of the day.'
The county council has insisted that 'all pupils will still receive a healthy, nutritious and warm meal,' The Times reported, and that it expected to return to the full menu later this month.
The upheaval comes amid a growing shortage of HGV drivers, a nationwide panic-buying spree at petrol stations and growing fear inside Downing Street that supermarket shelves could remain barren until December 25.
Canteen supplier ISS has reportedly told 450 schools to stockpile 'long life, dried, tinned and frozen' products to make sure children can still be fed this winter (stock image)
But Zahawi told ITV that it was 'news to him' that schools were being asked to stockpile food.
Labour's shadow education secretary Kate Green accused the Government of 'burying their heads in the sand' over supply chain issues which have led to petrol pumps running dry and empty food shelves.
In his letter to Mr Zahawi, Sir Ed said: "Across the country, I have heard from Liberal Democrat councillors and schools about some stark issues with food disruption in our schools for our children.
"Parents have endured so much and worked so hard during the pandemic but it seems your Government has failed them yet again. The least you can do is ensure a hot meal at their school for their children.
"For months you and your fellow ministers have been warned about the effects the shortage crisis could have on our economy and our everyday lives, now we see this reality coming true. For you to not have this on your radar is both surprising and a shocking abduction of leadership."
Ms Green has called for a plan to recruit and train more HGV drivers to ease the supply issues, adding: "No school must be left without the food supplies it needs, and no child left going hungry."
There are concerns of a 1978-style 'winter of discontent' for the UK, with skyrocketing energy prices, food shortages and fuel rationing.
In the email, which was sent a week ago, ISS reportedly said it is confident that it will be able to provide food across winter, but warned that it may change its menus at short notice as part of contingency plans.
ISS was said to have warned school canteens that it was already suffering from shortages of fish fingers, with the 'fallback' replacement meal being jacket potatoes.
Amid fears of a winter of discontent, ISS reportedly urged schools to place orders a week in advice, remove sandwich options due to bread shortages, remove unnecessary frozen items, such as ice cream, and 'stockpile' essential items.
A spokesperson for ISS told MailOnline: 'Our priority is always the schools, and the children, whose meals we provide.
'We would like to reassure parents and carers that our ability to continue to provide nutritious school meals is not being impacted by the well-publicised shortages of items that the UK is currently experiencing.
'Naturally, we have contingency plans in place to ensure that a good supply of meals remains in place.
'That contingency planning includes regular communication with our stakeholders during these challenging times for many schools across the country.'
Meanwhile, food wholesaler BidFood has warned that it is experiencing 'significant' supply pressures and is struggling to recruit HGV drivers (stock image)
Oct 8, 2021