CHICAGO (Reuters) - Dairy farmer Jason Leedle felt his stomach churn when he got the call on Tuesday evening.
“We need you to start dumping your milk,” said his contact from Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), the largest U.S. dairy cooperative.
Despite strong demand for basic foods like dairy products amid the coronavirus pandemic, the milk supply chain has seen a host of disruptions that are preventing dairy farmers from getting their products to market.
Mass closures of restaurants and schools have forced a sudden shift from those wholesale food-service markets to retail grocery stores, creating logistical and packaging nightmares for plants processing milk, butter and cheese. Trucking companies that haul dairy products are scrambling to get enough drivers as some who fear the virus have stopped working. And sales to major dairy export markets have dried up as the food-service sector largely shuts down globally.
The dairy industry’s woes signal broader problems in the global food supply chain, according to farmers, agricultural economists and food distributors. The dairy business got hit harder and earlier than other agricultural commodities because the products are highly perishable - milk can’t be frozen, like meat, or stuck in a silo, like grain.
Other food sectors, however, are also seeing disruptions worldwide as travel restrictions are limiting the workforce needed to plant, harvest and distribute fruits and vegetables, and a shortage of refrigerated containers and truck drivers have slowed the shipment of staples such as meat and grains in some places.
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3 comments:
Not true. Milk CAN BE frozen for 3-6 months and still be consumed.
The supply chain for milk is controlled by the diary industry from the processing plant that the farmers raw milk is delivered to, to the delivery to the end retailer. There is no disruption in the supply chain. And no diary has suddenly gotten rid of their refrigerated trucks they use to transport their products. This is some kind of political news (fake) by the diary lobby. Milk subsidies are always paid to the farmer by the government for dumping their milk, in accordance with the oversupply required to keep the market supplied with fresh milk. Milk dumping is a direct result of supply and demand, and the government interest in maintaining the diary industry. Dumping milk is a normal function of the diary industry as the cows don't stop producing milk when there are disruptions to demand.
CONDENSE THE MILK INTO POWDER AND FEED THE POOR ALL OVER THE WORLD.
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