Category: Produce Blueprints

Given that there is no immediate trucking capacity relief on the horizon, produce companies must be prepared for a challenging 2022.

While truck driver issues are the tip of the capacity shortage iceberg, there are several other contributors lurking below the waterline. It is imperative to navigate around them as well.

A big contributing factor to the truck driver shortage is demographics.

In recent months, images of congested ports have filled the news and prompted calls to action. As ports expanded their hours to reduce the backlog of ships waiting to be unloaded, a less visible bottleneck entered the spotlight.

As we look back over the past two years and consider all that was thrown at us, we are mindful of several key words or terms that sustained us, guided us, and energized us.

A number of questions face the industry when it comes to consumer behavior in 2022.

Labor shortages, food delivery and click-and-collect, and other trends are accelerating the need for technology.

Numerous studies have identified plant-based eating—from full-on veganism to a casual reduction in meat consumption through plant-based substitutes—as gaining traction in 2020 and 2021.

According to the CDC’s Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet), there were 26 percent fewer foodborne infections in 2020 compared with the average annual number from 2017 to 2019, marking the first decline in many years.

Product sampling was put on hold during the pandemic due to safety concerns, but will it come back? And at what level?