An ag economist says the last year and a half has been one for the books, and not necessarily in a good way. Farmers are used to facing challenges, be it weather or commodities, but the pandemic and disruptions up and down the supply chain have been persistent for well over a year.
Wells Fargo’s chief economist says that in addition to much higher input prices, farmers have to worry if they will be able to get any product to market.
“Trucker availability, containers, refers, pallets, cartons, packing material, they’re all kind of jumbled up together right now,” Michael Swanson states. “So, it’s not that perhaps the apples aren’t there or the foods not there, it’s the trucks not there or the packaging is not there.”
Michael Swanson says that on top of that, inflation is front and center for consumers, especially the cost of food. They want to know how long it is going to last and what they can do about it.
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