The massive disruption of agricultural supply chains brought on by the pandemic led to valuable lessons. By looking at the disruptions as learning opportunities, the agricultural industry can make significant improvements to its resiliency in the face of future events.

Large supply chains in any industry can be quite complex, but the perishable nature of agricultural products makes managing logistics an even more daunting undertaking. The American Farm Bureau Federation estimates that just 8% of U.S. farms supply food locally, which means the rest are part of a large and interconnected network designed to maximize efficiency and get products to their destinations at just the right time. During the pandemic, food production remained steady, but labor disruptions in the harvesting, processing, and transportation sectors demonstrated how fragile hyper-efficient supply chains can be.

The link between efficiency and fragility

When the major players in a supply chain rely on just-in-time (JIT) inventory management, even small disruptions can create a ripple effect both up and down the chain. This played out when meat processing plants shut down and farmers were forced to euthanize animals. Because livestock were no longer around to consume the feed, farmers producing grain for that purpose ended up with excess inventory and no one to sell to. With less capital to invest in supplies and equipment to fuel the next growing season, it became obvious that a few major plants shutting down can reverberate throughout an entire continent. READ MORE ….