Opinion: Ensure that your supply chain is prepared and resilient 

It’s an understatement to say that we’ve experienced severe, widespread supply chain disruptions over the past few years. Now that the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic is over, we’re still facing a perfect storm of crises that are negatively impacting our food supply – and it’s possible that the worst is yet to come.

Consider these simultaneous crises:

• Climate change is devastating our food supply globally. Extreme weather is destroying crops, ruining soil and causing increased world hunger. Droughts in California, floods in the Midwest and record-setting heat in Europe are making it difficult to farm as usual.
  
• The Russia/Ukraine war will have a long-term impact on our global food supply. Before the conflict, Ukraine exported 6 million tons of agri-commodities, including grain, but now only exports a small fraction of this. As tons of food sit in huge silos, there’s concern it’s not being stored properly or safely and, therefore, won’t be suitable for human consumption. And since Ukrainian farmers have missed several growing seasons due to the war, next year’s crop yields will be lower than average.
  
• The ongoing labour shortage is causing problems throughout the supply chain. Simply stated, products aren’t being produced or transported because there just aren’t enough workers to make or transport them. Since many fresh foods are perishable, any delay or disruption can lead to spoilage and waste. 
• We’re still facing product shortages, as numerous products have become extremely expensive and/or difficult to find. Items including popcorn, sriracha, mustard and olive oil may be scarce – or prohibitively expensive – in the coming months, so restaurants, bars and other food businesses are scrambling to find suitable substitutions. 
• Soaring inflation is leading to increased food insecurity. Even before the Russia/Ukraine war, prices for wheat and corn were 40-50% higher than average prices from the past decade. As a result, the number of food insecure people is predicted to grow globally from 440 million to 1.6 billion, as 250 million people face famine.

As we continue to face serious – and simultaneous – threats to our food supply, food brands and businesses should:

• Prioritise safety and quality throughout the supply chain. A critical part of supply chain management is carefully assessing the entire process, from farm to table. Every supplier throughout your supply chain must prioritise safety and quality and mitigate risks. Today, there are affordable, user-friendly software solutions that can help manage supplier certifications, organising them into a system you can see and manage. These digital solutions allow you to audit and evaluate all your suppliers’ sustainability and resilience, an effort that would be impossible to track using manual processes. 
• Think alternatively. As extreme weather and an ongoing war continue to impact food production, companies are becoming increasingly interested in alternative solutions. For instance, vertical farms grow produce in indoor, climate-controlled spaces, which protects crops from severe weather, like droughts, extreme temperatures, flooding, etc. The trend is for vertical farms to be located close to their final destinations, which offers multiple benefits, including lowering safety and quality risks, decreasing pollution from truck transport, reducing food deserts and minimising food wastage.
  
• Diversify your suppliers. What if you typically rely on Midwestern corn, California berries or Ukrainian grain? With ongoing, widespread food threats, it’s too precarious to rely on just one supplier for your ingredients, so develop backup plans. Build strong relationships with several different suppliers so if one can’t meet your needs, the others can fill in the gaps. Before working with new vendors, however, have systems in place to ensure that they adhere to the highest safety and quality standards. 
• Rely on suppliers closer to home. As we’ve seen, the Russia/Ukraine conflict is disrupting grain exports, which is impacting the global food supply. And closer to home, the drought out West and Midwestern floods will reduce many states’ food supplies tremendously. This is a good time to rely on local farms – or grow your own produce – to ensure a continuous supply of fresh foods. 
• Reduce food waste. Make reducing food waste part of your company culture. Since there’s no indication of food prices stabilising anytime soon, reduce waste and make every piece of food count. Tech tools can help you implement programmes to minimise food waste, identify internal theft, make inventory more efficient and provide predictive ordering and historical sales patterns so you can make more informed purchasing decisions.
• Expect things to get worse. Unfortunately, many experts are predicting that our food supply issues could get worse before they get better. If we look at the Russia/Ukraine war as an example, this year we’re facing logistics issues, such as diminished exports. But next year, the Ukrainian food supply will be lower than normal since their annual farm cycle has been disrupted. Ukraine’s production of wheat will likely decrease by 35-45% next season due to today’s conflict. 

As supply chains continue to face unprecedented threats and disruptions, there’s huge uncertainty about what will happen to our global food supply moving forward. Food businesses that are taking proactive steps now will be in a much better position in the future. So, prioritise waste reduction; research and vet new suppliers; stay aware of industry trends and current events that may impact the food supply; and utilise tech tools to streamline operations and make important tasks more efficient and accurate.

            Kari Hensien, president of RizePoint

As president of RizePoint, the longest-lasting quality management vendor in the marketplace, Kari Hensien has been instrumental in launching the company’s Ignite Supplier Certification Management solution and adding new features to make the platform even more valuable. Ignite allows companies to gather, organise and manage supplier documentation and information in a centralised location, track status and deadlines, ensure compliance and reduce time-consuming administrative tasks. Ignite leverages the latest tech stacks in cloud computing to deliver better speed of service, security and performance, with shortened development cycles. For more information or to discuss RizePoint’s solutions, please contact Kari at [email protected].