The out-of-stock rate for baby formula has now surged to 70 percent. That’s up 40 percent from last week, despite the U.S. receiving shipments from overseas.
The National Milk Producers Federation shares its ideas on how the shortage began and the best way to fix it.
“Fundamentally American families are facing this awful and heartbreaking shortage of product where parents are scrambling to find food to feed their babies because we saw a major U.S. facility very suddenly go offline, in terms of producing those products, and then unfortunately, remain offline in terms of lack of production for an extended period of time.”
The National Milk Producers Federation says the infant formula shortage is not a lack of milk supply, but an input issue. The best way to fix the shortage is to get the shuttered Michigan plant back online.
As for other steps the Administration can take, “For instance, one of the extra pieces that some folks are talking about is waiving tariffs for a bit while we are dealing with this crisis shortage in order to see if that helps further stimulate supplies into this country. With that said, there are not ample amounts of products swimming around global markets out there. So, that’s hardly going to be a silver bullet solution.”
Shawna Morris is the Milk Producer’s Senior Vice President of Trade Policy. She says turning to Canada for supplies will not be a fix-all either, “They don’t have ample supply to be shifting out to overseas markets at this time. That’s not what’s driving things here.”
Morris also says some people have blamed USMCA trade disputes as contributing to the shortage. Morris says it is unrelated because the U.S. supplies the vast majority of Canada’s infant formula needs.
As for more trade, NMPF says it encourages the Administration to move forward with more comprehensive agreements, but those issues are not related to the challenges we’re dealing with in the formula shortage.
Related:
USDA: Give states more flexibility to get infant formula to families
Kendamil in talks with FDA about exporting infant formula to the U.S.
FDA is under scrutiny for the baby formula crisis
