{"id":59134,"date":"2021-08-26T06:41:19","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T11:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=59134"},"modified":"2021-08-26T06:41:19","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T11:41:19","slug":"uk-supermarket-boss-says-shortages-at-worst-level-he-has-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=59134","title":{"rendered":"UK Supermarket Boss Says Shortages at Worst Level He Has Seen"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A truck driver makes a milk delivery to a supermarket in London on Aug. 3, 2021. (Tolga Akmen \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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UK Supermarket Boss Says Shortages at Worst Level He Has Seen<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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A leading\u00a0supermarket<\/a>\u00a0boss has warned that current UK food\u00a0shortages<\/a>\u00a0are at\u00a0a \u201cworse level\u201d than he has ever seen.<\/p>\n

The food supply chain has been disrupted by a lack of lorry drivers and by a shortage of labour in general.<\/p>\n

Steve Murrells, chief executive of the Co-operative Group, told The Times that they had significantly reduced the range of some products. He blamed Brexit and pandemic-related fallout for the shortages.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s currently a\u00a0shortfall<\/a>\u00a0of around 90,000 drivers, according to David Wells, chief executive of Logistics UK.<\/p>\n

The boss of frozen food retailer Iceland, Richard Walker, told the\u00a0BBC<\/a>\u00a0that unless the problems are resolved now, it could affect the availability of Christmas supplies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe driver shortage is impacting the food supply chain on a daily basis and leading to shortages on the shelves,\u201d Walker said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had deliveries cancelled for the first time since the pandemic began, about 30 to 40 deliveries a day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) said on Aug. 22 that supplies of Christmas favourites like pigs-in-blankets could be affected.<\/p>\n

Industry groups say that training for new drivers is taking months, with a backlog of 40,000 missed heavy goods vehicle (HGV) tests.<\/p>\n

Walker said the solution is to add HGV drivers to the skilled workers\u2019 list, which would allow them to be recruited from overseas.<\/p>\n

He said supply chain problems were a \u201cself-inflicted wound,\u201d from the handling of Brexit, \u201ccaused by the government\u2019s failure to appreciate the importance of HGV drivers and the work they do for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retailers are starting to offer incentives to bring in drivers. Tesco has been offering lorry drivers a \u00a31,000 ($1,370) joining bonus.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A truck driver makes a milk delivery to a supermarket in London on Aug. 3, 2021. (Tolga Akmen \/ AFP via Getty Images) UK Supermarket Boss Says Shortages at Worst Level He Has Seen A leading\u00a0supermarket\u00a0boss has warned that current UK food\u00a0shortages\u00a0are at\u00a0a \u201cworse level\u201d than he has ever seen. The food supply chain has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7],"tags":[4052,30465,20763,31091,3237,16350,2080],"class_list":["post-59134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-survival-2","tag-food-shortages","tag-simon-veazey","tag-supermarket","tag-supply-chain-disruptions","tag-supply-chains","tag-the-epoch-times","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}