This is not a manufactured crisis created by media hype. Quite the contrary - it's the inevitable result of "just in time" orders and deliveries, underpaying and overworking truck drivers, and creating a global supply chain.
As someone who owns a small business, I can tell you that some stock items I've been able (for more than ten years) to literally have delivered to me within 24 hours are now months away. This despite using vendors throughout the country.
I wrote this to some dear friends a few weeks ago. Since then matters have worsened:
My head has been spinning with regard to worldwide shipping problems. One of my vendors put out information about the current global supply chain challenges yesterday which started me down this rabbit hole of learning as much as I can about it. Other vendors have recently advised me of similar problems. That they are even discussing their own sourcing problems with customers is unheard of.
For one vendor alone, it's literally taking a minimum of 77 days (used to be 30) to get shipments from Asian factories to the US west coast - and that's assuming no extra glitches. The cascading problems include taking over a month to get the huge shipping containers to the factories to load the product for shipping (pre-pandemic: 1-2 days).
Problem is, these factories are merely that - factories. They're set up to produce and ship. Period. We're talking China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, etc. Lean and mean operations. No warehouse space to house inventory, so the factories have to shut down if the container doesn't arrive because there's no place to stack more finished product - or raw materials.
So after this finally ships, the next shipment starts out 30 days behind plus the extra 47 days in shipping delays. Shipment after that becomes 107 days late. And so forth.
This doesn't even account for containers that never arrive, even though promised. Pre-pandemic it cost $1700 for this vendor to rent and transport a full size shipping container, including shipping it from Asian ports to the US west coast. Now? $12,000 - $18,000 per. You read that right.
The container companies are creating bidding wars, but even when a company wins the bid they may not get the container because someone else swoops in with graft and bribes.
Factories are trying to arrange future container drop-offs but a lot of the container companies aren't interested... they know they can probably get more money for their containers in three months so why promise future deliveries?
There's very little competition because these days all shipping containers are manufactured in China. What are American and other western countries going to do - sue the container companies for price gouging and breach of contract? Good luck with that... Next thing you know your container will be "lost at sea."
I'm not in the food industry, so can't comment on that. My advice - if you use a lot of frozen, packaged or processed foods, stock up. Meat, especially beef, appears poised to continue to rise in price. If you haven't looked into making and enjoying some meatless meals, now might be the time to investigate that.
If you have a decent supply of flour, sugar, rice, beans, spices, nuts, canned/frozen fruit & veggies (including canned tomatoes) and some canned meat or fish, you can use those ingredients to make just about anything.
It's going to be a sometimes bumpy ride with periodic shortages and price hikes, but I don't foresee widespread panic or starvation. Just some inconveniences.
