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Chicken shortages hit Australian supermarkets, and that’s not the only product missing from shelves
- Another round of product shortages hits supermarkets
- Chicken, Vita Brits and some pasta are in short supply.
- Buyers expressed their frustration on social media
Shoppers complain that some very popular supermarket items are not currently on the shelves, including Vita Brits, some brands of pasta and chicken products.
“There has been no spaghetti at Coles Victoria Gardens for over a week,” said one frustrated shopper online.
“There seems to be a chicken shortage in Melbourne. I’ve been to five stores, Coles Woolworths and the local butcher, all sold out. They said it’s a supplier problem, no deliveries for days,’ another buyer complained.
One mother said she couldn’t find Vita Brits cereal anywhere and couldn’t switch to rival Weetbix because her ‘kids know the difference’.
A search on Woolworths’ online shopping website shows that the 1kg box of Vita Brits is currently out of stock, while Barilla brand spaghetti is also unavailable, as are some Ingham chicken products.
Pasta, particularly the Barilla brand, is becoming harder to find in many supermarkets. This photo of a Victorian Woolworths this week
Uncle Toby recently closed production of Vita Brit at his Victorian factory and moved to an undisclosed location. Currently not available at Woolworths online
One shopper couldn’t find the simplest staple, spaghetti, at his local supermarket.
One person suggested the chicken shortage was because Ingham cut his contracts with farmers “a couple of years ago” and only realized there would be a shortage towards the end of 2022.
Ingham’s chief executive, Andrew Reeves, told a shareholder meeting in November last year that the cost of chicken feed was soaring while consumer demand was falling.
The company’s annual results released in August showed its spending on chicken feed alone rose more than $45 million in 2022.
“We remain in active discussions to secure further price increases to offset the ongoing cost of feed and other inflationary pressures,” Mr. Reeves said.
Some Ingham products were not available at Woolworths online, while others were.
Some supermarkets have shortages of chicken products and one person suggests that Ingham’s has reduced its contracts with farmers.
Wheat, on the other hand, is in abundance: it was one of the few crops that did well during last year’s wild weather in Australia.
The national winter grain harvest is expected to be around 62 million tonnes, the second largest on record and the largest in terms of wheat, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) said.
Even the humble salad is in short supply. This image of NSW Woolworths
While Australian-grown wheat is plentiful, the crop is in high demand abroad as exports from the Ukraine and Russia, traditionally among the largest grain producers, have declined sharply.
ABARES forecast Australia’s agricultural exports could exceed $72 billion in the 2022-23 fiscal year.
Vita Brits maker Uncle Tobys produces the cereal locally from Australian wheat, but there have been recent changes to the factory.
Owner Nestlé cut 32 jobs from the brand’s main factory in north-east Victoria in 2020 and production moved to an undisclosed location.
Uncle Tobys said this month that “production failures” at the new facility caused the product to be temporarily out of stock and that the company was working to improve availability.
One shopper said he got the last box of Barilla pasta from his local store.
Barilla makes its pasta in Italy, making it more susceptible to wheat shortages in Europe.
Barilla, on the other hand, depends on European and American wheat.
According to the Barilla website, the pasta maker does not make its pasta locally.
‘Barilla Australia imports most of its pasta and pasta sauces directly from its Italian factories. A small number of pasta variants are imported from the United States,” the website states.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Ingham’s, Uncle Tobys and Barilla for comment.