Labor shortage for restaurants brings implications for foodservice suppliers

The labor shortage at restaurants has implications for produce suppliers.

First of all, demand may not open back up to full throttle until more workers are hired. Secondly, restaurants that are short of workers may demand more value-added produce to save labor at the restaurant level.

Restaurants are coming back every week but are challenged by tight labor, said Alex DiNovo, president of DNO Produce, Columbus, Ohio. “Really, a lot of the problems that I’m hearing about is finding personnel, finding workers; a lot of restaurants even have limited hours and limited seating because they can’t find the staff to help.”

According to National Restaurant Association statistics, just 8% of restaurant operators rated recruitment and retention of employees as their top challenge at the beginning of the year.

By April, that number rose to 57%, according to the association.
Industry sources surveyed by The Packer in late May and early June responded to the question, “Are restaurants having trouble finding labor in your region? Will that increase demand for value-added/cut produce from suppliers?”

Here are selected responses:

• “With the labor shortage we are actively marketing more value-added produce and have seen an uptick. The complication to this is that processors are experiencing labor shortages too.”
• “Demand is increasing on cut produce. We are having to increase our staff as a result.”
• “We are hoping for the workforce to come back and resume what we had prior to the pandemic.”
• “Yes, significantly short and that will continue to inflate demand.”
• "Yes, labor saving alternatives are needed.”

Most polled indicated that value-added produce is more important for foodservice sales than it was prior to the pandemic.