A series of winter storms and widespread power outages affecting Texas and other states unaccustomed to such extreme low temperatures are creating major challenges to the country’s food supply networks.
Grocery chains like Walmart and Publix have been forced to close some stores, either due to lack of power or lack of workers. And in places that remain open, customers complain about long queues outside and then empty the shelves once full of water, bread and milk as they enter. Texas grocery chain HEB, for example, closed some stores and limited the purchase of items by customers such as fur and propane depots.
Power outages have caught many people unprepared, such as Jon Reilly, who says he always keeps a supply of canned food available for a month for hurricanes. But on Wednesday, his daughter and his wife waited 20 minutes in line at a grocery store in Corpus Christi, Texas, only to come out with bread and water. They found no milk, cheese or meat. It also stays low on propane, which it uses to light the outside grill for cooking.
“We thought it was going to get cold,” Reilly said. “We didn’t expect to have no power for a week.”
Rodney Giles, 35, of Woodlands, Texas, went out Tuesday to look for a grilled steak. But he ended up waiting two hours in line outside his local HEB. When he came in, the only things available were tofu, oat milk and other things he didn’t want. But after experiencing several hurricanes and the pandemic, he hopes to soon stock up on the store.
“Even during the pandemic here in March, the first day the shelves were empty, but the next day they were fully stocked,” Giles said.
Grocers in Texas and other parts of the south are accustomed to hurricanes that can force them to close for a few days. But this week’s massive winter storms have a wider scope, wreaking havoc on roads and entire transportation infrastructure. The coronavirus pandemic only exacerbates the problem, as stores have to limit the number of customers.
Michael Zimmerman, a partner in strategic operations practice at global management consulting firm Kearney, predicts it will be two more weeks before grocery shelves in affected areas return to normal. He noted that food chains do a very efficient operation, keeping in stock what they need and relying on continuous flows of deliveries. But this can result in counterproductions in situations such as snowstorms and power outages when it helps to have additional inventory.
“Supermarkets just don’t have space, even if they could store garlic for three years,” he said.
Meanwhile, food suppliers have to reduce their operations or close farms and plants due to disruptions. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller issued a red alert earlier this week and noted that he was receiving calls from farmers and ranchers across the state reporting that power and natural gas outages they have a “devastating effect on their operations.”
In one example, dairy operations dump $ 8 million worth of milk every day down the drain because the plants that process that milk have no energy, Miller said in a statement.
“We’re seeing a food supply chain problem like we’ve never seen before, even with COVID-19,” he said.
Tyson Foods says it has temporarily reduced or suspended production at some facilities to save energy costs.
Sanderson Farms Inc., one of the largest chicken companies in the U.S., estimated Tuesday that up to 200 of its approximately 1,900 Texas chickens have no electricity. But the president and CEO of the Mississippi-based company, Joe F. Sanderson Jr., remained optimistic.
“This experience is similar to a hurricane,” he said. Sanderson, Jr., in a statement. “We have experience dealing with catastrophic weather events and this will be no different.”
Supply problems have spread to food banks, hampering their ability to feed those most in need. Celia Cole, CEO of famine relief organization Feeding Texas, said most of the 21 food banks the organization manages across the state have been closed due to weather, problems energy or the inability to get to work. But several have provided food to heating stations in the more urban areas of the state.
“I don’t think there’s any community that hasn’t been touched,” he said. “The biggest challenge we have in being able to help people is disrupting the supply chain.”
In the midst of the chaos, however, there are some bright spots, such as 24-year-old Bruna Villalon, who lives with her husband and three dogs in Austin, Texas. He went to Walmart on Monday to stock up on basics when the power went out.
“The store manager had to ask each buyer how much they thought the groceries were, and if we didn’t have cash, we could leave with the groceries,” said Villalon, who paid $ 20 in cash for some groceries. $ 35.
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D’Innocenzio and Anderson are headquartered in New York. AP business writer Dee-Ann Durbin in Ann Arbor, Michigan, contributed to this report.