With jarring media pictures of tomatoes, onions, lettuce and other fresh produce crops being left in the field or buried for compost because of the contraction of foodservice demand, the disconnect between long lines at food banks and images of wasted produce has struck a nerve with the American public.
“I was asked (in an ABC interview in mid-April), ‘With the lines at these food banks, and why can’t you just donate your product?’,” said Shay Myers, CEO of Nyssa, Ore.-based Owyhee Produce.
Myers company had to dispose of excess onion supply because of depressed prices and lack of demand related to the lack of foodservice demand in April. COVID-19 restrictions on restaurant operations largely cut off foodservice demand for jumbo onions. While the onions were harvested and in storage, Myers said that even giving those onions to food banks is not possible in some instances because of packing and transportation costs.
He has been interviewed in recent days by The New York Times, ABC News and other national consumer media outlets.
“There has to be some concessions made in that supply chain process, someone to step in and say, ‘Hey, I’ll cover the freight, or I’ll cover the packing costs’,” he said.
On the other hand, Myers said a crop like asparagus gives a grower more options than storage crops like onions and potatoes.
“If we don’t have a market (for asparagus), we can walk away from that field,” he said. “Storage crops are harvested months ago and put in storage and the investment was already made; so, the only option is to pack it or dump it.”
In an interview on April 14 with The Packer’s Tom Karst, Myers also talked with the opportunity to communicate with consumers about the need to support growers who put food on their tables.
“We really need to be talking about this opportunity and sharing a message, assuring people that we can do the job, but we need their support,” he said. “We need their support on every level.”
Myers has posted the ABC interview on his LinkedIn account.
