How To Cope with Pet Food Supply Chain Issues

Pesky supply chain issues don’t appear to be abating. Pet food is one of the most impacted categories, especially cat food. The confluence of surging demand as more people adopted pets combined with materials shortages such as aluminum have exacerbated the situation. 

Compounding that, higher costs of freight, gas and materials suggest prices will continue to be on the rise. Even as supply chain issues ease, prices will remain elevated, experts said. 

The Pet Food Institute is working with the federal government to help with the disruptions. They also encourage shoppers not to horde food.

“As the entire food system faced incredible disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. pet food makers were also forced to address new ingredient sourcing and transportation challenges,” said Dana Brooks, president and CEO of PFI. “America’s dog and cat food makers responded with resiliency and are hard at work making nutritionally balanced food for our pets.”

Even after COVID-19 cases started to decrease and businesses resumed operations as normal, ingredients such as chicken by-products and vegetable oils, which are used in many canned food items for pets, were hard to come by, according to PFI. 

"These ingredient shortages have not abated as the pandemic began receding. PFI members report all ingredient costs have risen 8-20%, with dramatic price increases for corn and soybean derivatives, which are key ingredients in many dog and cat food formulations," PFI said. 
Retailers can help alleviate shortages through diversifying brands, lining up alternative suppliers, working in partnership with brand and expanding private labels. The latter is an avenue to control stock conditions and offer prices ranges to include more cost-effective options. 

To learn more about pet food supply chain issues and what Alphia is doing to help, read here.