Produce shippers and packaging suppliers have faced shortages and higher prices of some packaging materials.
Produce shippers and packaging suppliers were asked the question, “How have raw material shortages affected your packaging procedures or plans?”
“The areas we’ve seen the largest shortages are in paper production and pallets,” said Chuck Sinks, president of sales and marketing for Yakima, Wash.-based Sage Fruit Co. “The paper shortage hindered our late season paper tote bag program. We’ll re-start that again with the start of new crop. “
The tote situation has been a “nightmare,” agreed Kristi Harris, brand manager for Honeybear Brands, Elgin, Minn. “First it was paper/fire, then glue, now ink.”
“From a packaging supplier standpoint, this has been a huge issue,” said Steve Greenfield, director of sales and marketing for NNZ Inc., Lawrenceville, Ga.
“It is not really popular to have to announce price increases on products on almost a monthly basis. We also have had to train our customers to order much earlier than in the past as both material and container shortages are greatly affecting lead times.”
One way that shippers have addressed is adjusting inventory strategies.
“We have increased inventory stocks to 90-to-120-day quantities,” said Andrew Hare, co-founder and general manager of Charleston, S.C.-based Vertical Roots.
“We’ve had to plan our packaging purchases further out,” said John Paap, manager at Jac. Vandenberg Inc., Tarrytown, N.Y.
Raw materials have been a true test for the supply chain over the past 16 months because of the pandemic, said Jeff Watkin, director of marketing for Sev-Rend, Collinsville, Ill.
“We are now seeing the ripple effect from manufacturing having short-term shutdowns causing shortages and price increases,” he said. “To curve this, we have been working closely with our clients, stressing the need to plan and forecast as far out as possible to ensure we hit their deadlines for the product to be to market on time.”
