Chicken will remain off the menu for many families in the coming weeks as a national shortage shows no signs of easing.
Key points:
- COVID isolation requirements for meat workers has led to chicken supply shortages
- Usually chicken is Australia’s most popular protein
- Temporary purchasing limits for meat in Coles will be lifted when the company is confident there is supply to meet demand
With supply chains under strain due to COVID, the Australian Chicken Meat Federation predicts breast fillets, drumsticks and chicken wings will remain hard to find for at least the remainder of the month.
And despite earlier assurances that whole chickens would remain available at major supermarkets, empty shelves in the poultry section prove otherwise.
The federation’s chief executive Vivian Kite says there are “ongoing and quite significant chicken supply issues”.
“With other products becoming less available people are moving to purchasing whole chickens and that’s leading to shortages in stores.”
Processing problems
Dr Kite said the most labour-intensive cuts to produce, such as cut-up, de-boned, marinated and skinless items, would take longer to become widely available.
“The items that require more people being in a processing plant to be able to produce the goods, they’re obviously the products to get cut,” she said.
“We’ll be in this supply situation for a couple more weeks, it’s all to do with staff shortages throughout the supply chain.”
Chicken is Australia’s most popular protein with more than 660 million birds processed for domestic consumption each year.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said changed isolation requirements for close contacts of COVID positive cases that came into effect last week had eased pressure on food processing and distribution.
“We are seeing some of those shortages alleviated,” Mr Morrison said.
“We are getting that poultry sector back on a good footing, but things were pretty tight there.”
Shopper frustration
Woolworths said in a statement the company was working with chicken suppliers to deliver as much stock as possible to stores amid the ongoing disruptions to processing and grocery supply chains across the country.
“We understand chicken processors have been particularly impacted by high levels of COVID-related absenteeism in recent weeks, and are pleased to hear that some have experienced improved capacity in recent days,” it said.
Coles said temporary purchasing limits for meat would be lifted when the company was confident about supply to meet customer demand.
“We are optimistic that we will see some improvements in coming weeks,” a spokesperson said.
“We thank our customers for their patience as we work with our suppliers and transport partners to increase deliveries and return a full range of products to our stores.”
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