The agricultural industry suffers due to supply chain issues
CENTRAL COAST, Calif. (KION) The agricultural industry is experiencing a ripple effect from the supply chain disruption that is affecting industries nationwide.
Javier Zamora, the owner of JSM Organic Farms, faces $50,000 to $60,000 dollars in additional costs because of the lack of supplies.
Supply chains are causing a ripple effect felt throughout the ag industry including a farmer named Zamora who owns their own independent farm who has difficulty finding supplies that were once readily available for reasonable prices.
"We rely heavily on plastics from china to try to put on our beds so the strawberries don’t touch the soil so that didn’t come in kinda struggling to find other sources and when we did find it it was more expensive," Zamora said.
“I believe we pay 30% to 35% more of what the regular price is for the plastic mulch that you can see,” Zamora said.
Time is of the essence with agriculture. The president of the Grower-Shipper Association has also seen several farmers struggle to get things from packaging material, fertilizer, and even as far as getting the necessary transportation.
"Without those materials or without those materials on a timely basis, inclusive of packaging as well, which is critically important to ensure you have the packaging material so that you can conduct a timely harvest and in turn, follow through with the timely shipment to fill contractual obligation with buyers to ensure that consumers have fresh, plentiful supply of the healthy foods produced from this region," Zamora said.
Valadez says the industry may need to adapt.
"You have such a high degree of input costs that you're not able to adequately see a return and in turn, that that jeopardizes your economic viability not only as a business, but it could still really have an effect on the economic viability longer-term onto the entirety of our region," said Chris Valadez, President of the Grower-Shipper Association.
In the end, Zamora says all these costs will end up driving higher prices for products and that means more out of pocket for the consumer.
