CHICAGO (Reuters) – Dairy farmer Jason Leedle felt his stomach churn when he got the call on Tuesday night.
” We need you to start discarding your milk,” said his contact from Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), the biggest U.S. dairy cooperative.
Despite strong need for fundamental foods like dairy products amidst the coronavirus pandemic, the milk supply chain has seen a host of interruptions that are avoiding dairy farmers from getting their items to market.
Mass closures of dining establishments and schools have forced an unexpected shift from those wholesale food-service markets to retail supermarket, developing logistical and packaging nightmares for plants processing milk, butter and cheese. Trucking business that carry dairy products are scrambling to get enough drivers as some who fear the infection have actually quit working. And sales to significant dairy export markets have actually dried up as the food-service sector mostly shuts down globally.
The dairy market’s problems signal wider issues in the worldwide food supply chain, according to farmers, agricultural financial experts and food suppliers. The dairy service got struck harder and previously than other agricultural commodities since 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 interruptions worldwide as travel constraints are limiting the labor force required to plant, harvest and distribute fruits and vegetables, and a lack of cooled containers and truck drivers have actually slowed the delivery of staples such as meat and grains in some locations.
Leedle could likely offer his milk if he might get it to market. Dairy products in grocery stores have actually been in high demand as customers stay home during the pandemic, though panic buying might be slowing. Previously this week, a local market informed Leedle’s partner she could purchase just 2 dairy products amount to per shopping trip as sellers across the country provision lots of high-demand items.
” It’s simply gut-wrenching,” said Leedle, 36, as he stood inside his barn, with cows lowing gently as the animals were giving milk that would be funneled straight into a manure pit. “All I can see is that line going down the drain.”
Leedle has disposed 4,700 gallons of milk from his 480 cows each d