Here's why you can't find frozen fries, while U.S. farmers are sitting on tons of potatoes

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

BUSINESS NEWS APRIL 24, 2020 / 6:08 AM / UPDATED 4 HOURS AGO

Here's why you can't find frozen fries, while U.S. farmers are sitting on tons of potatoes

Lisa Baertlein
5 MIN READ

(Reuters) - Shopper Lexie Mayewski is having a hard time finding frozen french fries in Washington, D.C.-area supermarkets in the wake of coronavirus-fueled stockpiling.

On the other side of the country, Washington state farmer Mike Pink is weighing whether to plow under 30,000 tons of potatoes worth millions of dollars that would have been turned into french fries for fast-food chains like McDonald’s Corp, Wendy’s Co and Chick-fil-A.

Their incongruent experiences underscore how America’s highly specialized and inflexible retail and foodservice supply chains are contributing to food shortages and waste in the wake of demand disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed almost 50,000 people in the United States.

-snip-

Frozen fries are an ideal pandemic staple - offering comfort, convenience and long-shelf life for U.S. families accustomed to fast-food meals and school cafeteria lunches.

The main hurdle is the extra-large size of foodservice packages that are meant for kitchens that turn out dozens if not hundreds of meals each day.

“Think Costco, but bigger,” said International Foodservice Distributors Association (IFDA) CEO Mark Allen, referring to the oversized products sold at warehouse retailer Costco Wholesale Corp.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-french-fries-analy/heres-why-you-cant-find-frozen-fries-while-u-s-farmers-are-sitting-on-tons-of-potatoes-idUSKCN2261AU

[msongs]

1. farmers are subsidized in every direction, they're not likely to lose any $ over this nt

[rzemanfl]

2. Reading these articles about crops being plowed under, dumping milk, chickens and hogs being

slaughtered and dumped cries for out of the box thinking.

[unblock]

6. companies with the capability to package things for household sale are doing quite well

it's a strange kind of recession where certain businesses are doing very well -- primarily those that cater to household consumption. people are cooking and eating and storing food at home way more.

the part of the food supply chain serving restaurants is getting killed, and the part of the food supply chain that serves households is completely overwhelmed. business is booming, but they're beyond capacity, and facing shortages themselves. not of food, but of packaging materials and such.

believe it or not, even household appliance makers are doing great. people are buying mini-fridges and freezers, toasters, bread makers, etc.

this is very atypical for a recession, especially a sharp one like this.


but yeah, if you can figure out all the details and you can buy bushels of fries and package, label, and distribute them to households, you can make a ton of money during this crisis.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. This is kind of ridiculous, they're dumping milk, here's an article on potatoes, there's

another article on chickens, etc. Perhaps farmers are getting way too socialized w/ all of the different pricing support mechanisms in place. Is it time to revamp and remove a lot of these supports? After all, most of these supports are going to corporate farms, not the family farm.

[rzemanfl]

9. Kegs of beer are going stale too. They are stuck in empty venues. n/t

[SWBTATTReg]

12. Oh nooooo! I wouldn't be surprised. What a waste. Our economy is stuck in a running ...

loop, producing tons of unneeded crap.

[unblock]

4. this is a problem across the entire food supply chain and beyond.

it even explains some of the toilet paper shortage. households don't buy the large industrial rolls of rough single-ply sandpaper that you find in corporate or public restrooms. toilet paper makers can't just easily make what's actually a fairly different product, packaged and labeled differently, and sold through different distributors and so on.

households also don't by restaurant-sized cans of tomatoes and so on.

[at140]

5. Use water instead of dry cleaning butt with paper

Water cleans much better, and prevents stained underwear.

[unblock]

7. it may come to that....

[RainCaster]

8. Nobody around to take the food

My brother runs a frozen food warehouse that flash freezes cut potatoes (fries, tater tots, etc.) and ships them out on rail & trucks.

Last week he had a semi pull up fully loaded with canned vegetables & fruits. He needed to dump them somewhere because the place he was to drop them had gone out of business and he needed to reload his truck for another customer. My brother made lots of calls- local churches, food banks, etc. Nobody there. At All. Any where. An entire semi (60,000 lbs) of canned food went into a series of dumpsters.

[SWBTATTReg]

13. Jesus. And the feds or states could not grab, and use it, e.g., distribute it to the vast lines ...

of people waiting in line to get food? God, something is wrong here. Your brother must have been going nuts. God. I feel for him and others stuck in this weird limbo land, people going hungry and yet food everywhere is being dumped? Go figure. Some economy man, all geared up to Wall Street and not anything else.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

14. Mobilize the National Guard to distribute it? I don't have any better ideas. NT

[SWBTATTReg]

16. Really. I would think that the Red Cross or some other national relief agency would have...

stepped into this whole mess by now, but perhaps they're hamstrung by stay at home orders too, fewer volunteers, etc. Surely there is a kitchen around just about everywhere where the excess food can go to? Perhaps maybe a central routing point manned by Salvation Army/Red Cross/etc. personnel, w/ no dibs on stuff for their organizations, just using their expertise to run a non-profit, that can route unwanted supplies to places where needed (using empty trucks).

Sounds more like an organizational challenge, with no one in charge ... hmmm, sounds like rump struck again.

[customerserviceguy]

10. I was in a local supermarket

a couple of weeks ago, and on an end freezer, I saw very large packs of French fries and onion rings. They were in clear plastic, with very minimal labeling. It occurred to me that they might have been destined for commercial use when packaged, but had been shunted off to the retail market.

They were a good deal, too, but we don't have the freezer space.

[Chainfire]

11. It presents a false image

To call the people farmers, and the production facilities "farms."

We are really talking about agribusiness, huge enterprises that are owned by people who never had shit on their shoes.

A "Farmer" is someone who runs 80 acres of family owned land and drives his own machinery. Farmers don't plow sixty million pounds of edible food into the ground. Neither would giant agribusinesses if they weren't getting bailed out to do it. If the business destroys that much food, it will because they make more money destroying it that by getting creative with how to distribute it.

It is all about insatiable appetite for money.

[Auggie]

15. This is affecting most to all food service producers