During his 36 years of working in the food industry, Clay Mullins has never seen anything like today when it comes to supply chain challenges.
“Historically, the food business hasn’t had significant supply chain problems except that transportation capacity would be tight at times,” said Mr. Mullins, vice president of supply chain and logistics, Crown Bakeries, Brentwood, Tenn.
Within the past three years, delays and disruptions driven by COVID-19 have been popping up everywhere. Solving these issues has been like a game of whack-a-mole, except with serious consequences.
“With many of them, you don’t know where they are coming from until they have occurred,” Mr. Mullins explained.
Jim Warren, BEMA chairman and vice president, Exact Mixing, Reading Bakery Systems, said the baking industry is struggling with a lack of raw materials to make products, components for equipment and the workforce needed to meet customer demands.
“Historically, individual shortages have occurred, but this is the first time we are seeing shortages of these three key manufacturing components at the same time,” he said. “The result, as we all know too well, is creating chaos in the industry.”
The situation has also affected what retailers offer in terms of product variety.
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