The baking industry, among other food and agriculture groups, provided testimony to Members of the U.S. House of Representatives Agriculture Committee at today’s hearing “The Immediate Challenges to our Nation’s Food Supply Chain.” Ed Cinco, Director of Purchasing for Schwebel Baking Company, represented the American Bakers Association to tell first-hand accounts of the urgent needs for bakers involving the workforce shortage, concerns of the vaccine and testing mandate, and edible oil supply crisis.
The testimony highlighted the shortage of workers across the board and honed in on the urgent need for more truck drivers.
“The baking industry has one of the largest trucking fleets in the U.S. and is reliant upon drivers to transport our products to the end customer,” said Cinco. “Additionally, some ingredient suppliers are hesitant to take on new business for fear of being unable to deliver their product to the manufacturer, forcing bakers to consider other methods of sourcing thus further increasing the prices of ingredients.”
While discussing the industry’s struggles with retaining and recruiting workforce, the testimony raised concerns about President’s COVID-19 Action Plan.
“The baking industry supports the President’s goal of getting Americans vaccinated, but we have real concerns on how such a rulemaking will negatively impact our industry’s fragile workforce,” Cinco said. “The logistics of COVID-19 vaccines, booster shots and testing are challenging and with the ongoing workforce shortage, thoughtful and flexible compliance implementation with a vaccine and testing policy will be critical to keeping our bakeries operational.”
ABA is a member of the U.S. Rapid Action Consortium (RAC) whose mission is to safely and effectively reopen the U.S. economy faster through a COVID-19 rapid action testing system to enable U.S. businesses to better create safer workplaces. The Consortium has already seen a significant supply chain strain on members’ ability to access COVID-19 rapid tests through these efforts.
Congressional leaders also heard the impacts of supply shortages and price hikes on critically important ingredients such as gluten, emulsifiers, soybean oil, packaging, and printing capabilities for the packaging. Many of these challenges directly result from the global disruption of the highly connected global supply chain further exacerbated by COVID-19.
Cinco specifically outlined the multifaceted, complicated issue involving the overwhelming market demand for soybean oil and other vegetable oils.
“The 2020 drought, lower than expected projected plantings in 2021, and the EPA’s renewable biodiesel program all play a large role in the soybean oil supply crisis bakers are experiencing today,” he said. “This means for some food companies, edible oil literally will not be available at any price due to diversion of edible oil from producing food to burning as fuel at the end of this calendar year.”
A solution offered was for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to use its statutory authority under the federal EPA Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program to consider commodity market and food supply impact when setting the 2021 and 2022 Renewable Volume Obligation (RVO) mandates for biodiesel and renewable diesel.
“EPA has the authority to set the RVO targets at levels that do not disrupt agricultural markets and our food supply,” added Cinco.
The testimony concluded:
“ABA members want to ensure a continuity for a reliable and steady production and supply of delicious, nutritious, baked goods throughout the country for American families, food service and the USDA’s federal feeding programs to ensure food security for all.”
“This hearing testimony directly reflects ABA’s aggressive efforts to educate Congressional leaders on the dire impacts of supply chain disruptions for our Members,” said Lee Sanders, ABA SVP of Government Relations and Public Affairs. “We are hopeful this testimony and our ongoing work will provide relief for bakers and other stakeholders on policies that would exacerbate supply chain challenges and the inevitable rise in food prices for consumers.”
