The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Bahamian food retailers yesterday said they were “bracing” for possible supply chain shortages and disruption in the US, and starting to seek out alternative product sources.

Bradley Rolle, Centreville Food Store’s general manager, told Tribune Business: “Of course it is going to affect us. We saw it coming. As a matter of fact, a lot of our distributors were alerting us to what was going on because apparently when you order particular shipments from the US you only get half of the order; you don’t get the full order.

“Obviously we figured something was going on. So we have to brace for it. There is nothing we can do about this in the short-term, but in the long-term we are just going to have to find a way where we can feed ourselves.”

Mr Rolle added that The Bahamas should follow Jamaica’s example. When he visited several food stores in Jamaica, he noticed all the goods were made in that Caribbean nation.

“As a matter of fact, in my food store a lot of our products are from Jamaica,” Mr Rolle said. “We’re going to have an issue, make no mistake about it. The government is just going to have to find a way to negotiate with the United States and their grocers to see if they could help us out.”

Mr Rolle added that the country’s main food wholesaler, Sysco Bahamas Food Services, has a warehouse that is “stacked”. He voiced hope that this will help carry The Bahamas through the next three to four months in terms of food supply.

He was speaking after Tyson Foods, one of the major US meat suppliers, warned that COVID-19’s impact - especially its spread among workers at multiple processing plants - had cut pork production by 50 percent even though consumer demand had increased by 30-40 percent as more persons stay at home.

And Wendy’s, the fast food chain, warned its US consumers that they may experience a shortage of some menu choices due to the supply chain disruption caused by the pandemic.

Cyril Carey, general manager of Kenneth’s Food Store on Prince Charles Drive, admitted that he had “better try to look into that” after conceding he was unaware of US food shortages and supply disruption.

He said: “I guess it would affect us because if it is happening in the United States then it is bound to affect us here.” Mr Carey added that he had received no warnings from his wholesale suppliers other than complaints about Customs’ Click2Clear clearance system and goods that are stalled on the dock.

Atwell Ferguson, Golden Gates Supermarket’s general manager, said: “If there is a food shortage in the United States, I didn’t get that news yet. If there is a shortage then it is going to be a problem because the majority of our food comes from there.”

“We have to find other ways of bringing in food, because we don’t have the means of manufacturing stuff here. The food supplies we have here are not enough to fill our country’s needs. The only other option we have is to go to another country to source food.”

Mr Ferguson also told us that he was going to do more investigation into the potential food shortage and said, “I was looking out for the food shortage in the states, but it has not impacted us yet.”