Wednesday, 4 January 2012

Long Term Food Storage Shortage: Ongoing Trend?

By Troy Butcher


Falling further and further behind are companies in the food storage industry. They can't seem to keep up with the growing demand. Can we pinpoint where this demand is coming from? Or is this shortage of supply being generated from somewhere? Recent events like the natural disasters and difficult economic times are contributing factors. Some have also seen increased demand coming from the US Government that is buying up long term food storage. Could this indicate problems to come? This isn't necessarily the case, however, it is a wise plan to be ready for what could happen tomorrow. No time is better to prepare with long term food storage.

I'm somewhat new to the industry but I am amazed at the extreme shortage that exists among food storage companies. There isn't a company that is able to keep up with demand. Each week that goes on, more and more companies are forced to go from 1 week to 8 weeks to 8 months of lead time for their products. One of the largest food storage companies explains on their main page of their website that it can no longer sell directly to the public as it is trying to keep up with their distributors. And the thing that is most telling, as some of these companies think they are going to be able to finally keep up, the demand the next month is more than the month before.

Demand is at it's peak for freeze dried and dehydrated foods as they can carry a shelf life of up to 25 years. The catalyst behind the shortage is the manufactures of the raw ingredients are not able to keep up with the demand. The locations that produce these ingredients are running at full steam. The main factor for why companies decide to use freeze dried food is that it lasts much longer, and won't spoil as easy as other foods. In addition to that these meals are super easy to prepare as they just require water.

Improvement to this ongoing problem won't change in the short term. Demand has not slowed down and shows no sign of doing so. So, then why is it people are turning towards long term food storage as a means to help make ready their lives for man caused disasters, natural disasters, financial turmoil, lack of food, and other emergencies? A hypothesis to this question is looking at some of the basic needs to sustain life and food and water rank right up there at the top.

In the news, I saw a story about a hurricane that was about to hit. In this story, it highlighted people at the towns supermarket. As the camera panned the store, views of the shelves revealed not much left in the store as everyone had swarmed it to prepare for what was to come. If food and water were in adequate supply, would there be the same concern? Would there be the same type of worry and despair that some of these folks in the story were up against? Possibly there still would be concern and panic but there also could be some comfort knowing you were a little more prepared.

Reality is most disasters don't give us anytime to be prepared. This is a main reason I believe that a large majority of people are seeking out ways for them to be more ready for these events. Not being able to read into the future makes it very difficult to know whats on the horizon. One thing you can do is have a plan on how to provide yourself and your family with these two key ingredients of food and water.

In summary, its a very good idea to take the time to prepare. There are a number of long term food storage providers in the industry. Each one of these companies have great solutions for emergency food storage. The things I would look for include shelf life, ease of preparation, taste, ease of storage and portability. And ultimately to save time, a lot of these companies have the meals designed in a all in one package and they are affordable. Good luck getting prepared!




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