The Island will not run out of food and if there are shortages of some products, consumers should rest assured they will only be short-term.
That was the message from Island grocers Thursday as they faced another day of uncertainty following catastrophic floods around the province, which resulted in compromised or destroyed transportation infrastructure and concerns about the supply chain.
“We might see a bit of a shortage in a couple of categories, but I don’t think it will be massive and it won’t be long-term,” said Russ Benwell, owner of Red Barn Market, who said challenges could continue through the weekend.
Red Barn and other grocery stores around Greater Victoria were bracing for a second day of increased shopping volume on Thursday, as consumers reacted to news that some supplies are being held up by highway washouts, closed roads and farms being knocked out of production by the floods.
Fuel shortages on Wednesday helped stoke the alarm, said Benwell, adding his company is in good shape, as it sources many of its products locally. All grocers will feel some impact, however, in products sourced from the Fraser Valley — particularly poultry, milk and other dairy items from that region, he said.
The Chicken Farmers of Canada have said 61 poultry farms have been evacuated in the Fraser Valley, 22 of which are broiler farms, where chickens are raised for meat.
There are 380 dairy farms in the Fraser Valley and 59 in the Sumas Prairie area have had to be evacuated, which means a significant loss of production.
The B.C. Milk Marketing Board advised dairy farmers in parts of the Fraser Valley and Interior to dump milk into manure piles because mudslides and road washouts have made it impossible to transport.
That does not seem to be the case on the Island, however.
Diane Jubinville, director of communications at Agropur, which owns the Island Farms brand, said production is already back to normal at its Victoria production facility.
“Agropur was able to partially maintain its fluid milk production at its Burnaby facility. The situation at our Victoria plant is back to normal,” she said, noting while demand is high, the company is focused on processing the most popular items.
Agropur has moved some milk production to its facility in Edmonton. “However, the situation is already easier in the Victoria area for the milk pick-up [from dairy farms], giving us confidence that we can increase our processing volume more quickly,” she said.
Benwell said grocers deal with large companies that have the ability to re-route many supplies, so he is expecting any shortages to be more of a blip than a “new normal.” Benwell also pointed out that a lot of produce and commodities come from the U.S. and Mexico at this time of year and should still be arriving as normal.
“We will not run out of food. There will be minor setbacks in a few areas, but it will be short-term,” he said. “We just have to be calm. We have lots in the supply chain and we are not going to be out of everything in the grocery stores in Victoria.”
Darryl Hein, operations manager for the Market on Yates, said consumers have once again been doing a little panic buying, including buying more toilet-paper rolls than usual.
“Yes, there is some panic buying, but our suppliers are doing a fantastic job keeping us supplied.” Hein said there will be shortages of some items, but plenty of stock for most items at the Market Stores.
Like Benwell, he asked people not to buy more than they need out of fears of dwindling supplies. “We are hoping stock issues will be back to normal in a week to 10 days.”
aduffy@timescolonist.com
