Western Growers CEO says pandemic, restaurant shutdowns 'threw a grenade' into food supply chain

close

Video

Western Growers CEO: Pandemic blew up our food supply chains

Western Growers CEO Dave Puglia on the loss of the restaurant industry and the boom in groceries impacting business.

Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here.

Western Growers Association CEO Dave Puglia told “America’s Newsroom” Tuesday that the coronavirus pandemic has been a “difficult” challenge for farmers due to the shutdown of restaurants and other parts of the food sector that rely on produce.

“We have in this country [a] highly sufficient and very safe food supply infrastructure," Puglia said. "Those supply chains have been well developed over the years and when this shutdown happened--it literally blew them up."

“We’re trying to re-piece all of our supply chains to be able to continue providing safe and affordable and fresh food to consumers through grocery outlets," Puglia said, "but the loss of the restaurant sector really threw a grenade into the middle of our food supply chain.”

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that American farmers have been left with a surplus of supplies, forcing them to dump milk, throw out eggs and plow under healthy crops. Produce suppliers are especially vulnerable to surpluses because fruits and vegetables are perishable and can't be stored.

"The demand (from the large customers) just went to zero," lettuce producer Mark Borba, who manages 10,000 acres in Huron, Calif., told the paper. "And not only did we lose restaurants and schools, but people were going to the grocery store buying nonperishable stuff to put in the pantry. They were not buying leafy greens.".

CLICK HERE FOR FULL CORONAVIRUS MAP

Puglia told "America's Newsroom" he watched a Western Growers Association member plow “350 acres of high-quality romaine lettuce right back into the ground.” last week in Imperial County, Calif., because there was "literally no place to put that product."

“We’ve more than doubled our donations to food banks in California and, still, there is so much fresh produce that, of course, is highly perishable and doesn’t have a market because of the loss of the restaurant and food service sector that these farmers really have no choice [but to do that,]” Puglia said.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

“If there is no place to sell that crop, you can’t spend that money on harvest and you have to put it back in the ground and it is really tragic."