3BrNBBRz4UYdo+!~~60_7.JPG "chameleon54"){kind=avatar}
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@davidc4430 wrote:
@chameleon54 wrote:
@davidc4430 wrote:Coronavirus isn't causing Australia to run out of food — but why are shelves still bare?
if trucks are not able to deliver 24 hours a day then allow it, simple!
until things return to normal.
Much of the seasonal and fresh food is produced on a " just in time " basis. Many herbs and leafy vegies such as lettuce and tomatoes are grown in controlled environment hot houses. The growers contract to supply the supermarkets with "X" number of stock months before the produce is grown. Eggs are the same and even a lot of meat is grown on a rolling basis to meet regular weekly supermarket contracts. This is particularly the case with beef and mince where the cattle are grain finished in feedlots, usually for 90 days before being slaughtered for the supermarket trade. This gives the beef consistent, reliable texture and taste.
When there is a sudden surge in demand, the lettuce growers or beef feedlots cant just produce extra stock over night. It takes months of planning and finite infrastructure to grow food.
With meat, you can add in the effects of the drought leading to some of the lowest sheep and cattle numbers in the last one hundred years. Parts of NSW and Qld. have now had major rains and restocker graziers are out competing the butcher trade to buy stock to re-establish herds. In S.A. cattle prices have jumped 40% in the last 4 weeks with B doubles of cows heading to the Eastern states visible on the roads regularly.
So all up there IS a shortage of food. This is partly a hang over from the drought ( and would have been a problem regardless ) and partly because the panic buying has disrupted the supply / demand balance.
so your saying the supliers are telling lies?
it wasnt me saying there is NO shortage, it was
"Mr Zimmerman said distribution centres (DCs) were currently chock-a-block with stock, but "the problem is getting [it] from the DCs into the stores"."
i have no idea what stock is or isnt available ready for delivery to stores.
i was under the impression it WAS growers ect that couldnt keep up with demand.
this man says i'm wrong, its getting the stock to the store thats the problem.
In a situation like this where people are panic buying, the government and senior business people will offer soothing words to try to calm everyone down. If that means telling a few porkies...so be it.
So is there a shortage of meat ? Most definitely and it would have been a big problem even without the Corona virus. The only thing the virus has done is disrupt the export of meat to countries such as China, giving more supply to Australians, but the hoarding has counter acted this phenomenon meaning increases in prices anyway. I have held back around half of my lamb drop from last year on the expectation of meat shortages in winter and expected record prices. That decision was made before the virus became a problem. With the meat hoarding currently going on I am drip feeding some of this lamb onto the market and taking the money while it is on offer. Sale yard numbers show other farmers are doing the same thing. What does this mean ? Even lower meat supply in the coming winter and China is back in the market again now, starting to replenish their depleted supplies.
Is there a shortage of other fresh foods. Again yes, but only because people are panic buying and disrupting the fine balance between contracted supply and demand. The supermarket supply warehouses may well be stocked with dry packaged goods and tinned products, but grocery hoarding is not just happening in Australia, it is a global issue. This will disrupt global supplies and could result in shortages of even these products in the near future.
So what am I doing ? I,m not going over board, but I am dropping into supermarkets when I,m driving past their front door and just buying up a few of the items on special to stash away. I,ve been doing this for a few weeks and probably have two - three weeks of extra groceries stored away. I have also had a lamb butchered and have 30 kg. of home grown lamb meat in the chest freezer.
Yesterday I went to the remote farm and rounded up all of the excess tinned and dry food I had there, plus the 16 pack of loo paper, rolls of paper towel, disinfectant etc. and brought them back to my home. Why ? Because some of this stuff is going to be very hard to get hold of in the near future, it hasn't cost me much ( all stuff on special or already sitting in my other house ) and if it gets me and the rest of the family out of trouble through the period of shortages, great. If not needed, the family will still use it up over the next six months.
I intend to get my medical scripts filled tomorrow and buy a couple of bottles of Scotch to keep me going over the next month or two. Even things like that could become harder to find if the hoarding goes on.
If things get really serious ? I,m a hoarder by nature and have sheds full of stuff that might come in useful one day. Enough stuff to mend, fix, make and repair for years to come. A lot of the stuff I build already comes from stuff I have hoarded up over a lifetime. ( picked up half a dozen sheets of iron from the farm tonight to put a new roof on the firewood shed ...
)
