By: Crystal Kwaw, Reporter
Emptier shelves and higher product prices have consumers asking how we got to this point.
Trent Harley, one of the owners of No Name Nutrition Market said, prices are always going up and many suppliers since the beginning of the year have charged more.
“That’s causing us in turn to either eat it or raise the prices for others,” he said.
The nation’s fuel imports has decreased since President Biden’s ban on Russian oil. Higher demand on fuel has impacted aspects of the food supply chain.
According to an article on Energy Policy titled, “Energy and Food Security: Linkages through Price Volatility,” energy prices spill into the agricultural industry. Their research showed the price of fuel had strong correlation with Iowa’s wheat, corn, soybean and sugar crops.
A 2020 Resource in Focus article called, “The Future of Fertilizer” said petroleum is an ingredient of inorganic fertilizers to support large scale farming practices.
No Name Nutrition receives coral calcium imported from Okinawa, Japan from a brand called Ecopure.
“I’m told shipments are being held off the coast,” Harley said.
“And that is causing more and more issues with demand and with us trying to supply the products to our consumers,” he said.
Harley said he points consumers to alternatives if they have them.
If products aren’t delayed, at worst they’re out of business. That’s what Brayan Lorenzo, grocery store worker at the Tropical Omaha Market said happened to one of their suppliers from the Philippines.
“We lose too, because these are items we should have, but we can’t,” Lorenzo said.
In addition to citing the pandemic, Lorenzo said he’s noticed a shortage of trucking delivery drivers.
