The Produce Marketing Association convened its members from across the global produce and floral communities to discuss the pandemic’s impact on their businesses during the Virtual Town Hall held on Wednesday, March 25th. With over 800 members registered from 21 countries, the meeting showcased the way the global food and floral supply chain is focused on working together to address the “new normal.”  

While PMA will continue to provide resources capturing the conversations from the virtual town hall meeting, some themes discussed were:

Global Trade

With members from Mexico, Singapore, the EU, Colombia, Peru, the United States, and China all providing insights, the discussion focused on what is becoming a pattern from country to country as the pandemic progresses. This includes an initial rise in retail from panic buying, making it difficult to anticipate demand, followed by a stabilizing period where the largest questions remaining are about trade and logistics. 

Supply Chain

This roundtable highlighted differences between European challenges and what is becoming a challenge in the United States. Within Europe, fewer retailers are geared to support e-commerce or online grocery shopping.  Additionally, with air freight deeply impacted, maintaining capacity in the supply chain has become a challenge while ground transportation has seen fewer problems. In the United States, the main delays are not at ports or border crossings; they are at distribution centers waiting to be unloaded, possibly due to facility policies around social distancing among the workforce.  

Retail

Similar to other roundtable discussions, this group confirmed the stabilization of retail traffic. Members from multiple companies were reflecting similar challenges, ranging from a decrease in trucks for produce as other products grew in demand, to childcare issues facing retail employees whose children are out of schools. Most retailers are seeing the same core group of products - including bananas, potatoes, carrots and onions – make up the bulk of purchases.

Foodservice

Foodservice has seen a considerable amount of disruption from the operator through the supply chain. Discussions here focused on how foodservice is responding to the crisis by offering take-out and delivery approaches and even trimming down menus. There were also instances of collaboration to save fresh product as well as jobs, including distributing directly to retailers who were reducing produce deliveries to account for other high-demand items. Members remain optimistic to the future but are concerned about how the supply chain will be able to meet restaurants’ needs in a post-COVID-19 world.

Growers/Shippers

Here, industry leaders from the U.S. South Africa, and Spain discussed the uncertainties facing growers and shippers globally. While the supply chain is stable, a shared major concern is maintaining labor in a way that is safe for employees and their employers. They  pointed to PMA’s resources that guide growers and shippers on supporting a safe work environment. 

Source: hortidaily.com – 30^th March 2020

Image Source: Image by stokpic from Pixabay